AHC: A conservative FDR Presidency

[glenn67]

When he ran for President in 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt promised to balance the federal budget, which Herbert Hoover had been unable to do (when FDR came into office, the national deficit was nearly $3 billion). He also supported reducing spending, shrinking the size of the Federal government and for a sound currency.

Once he became President, FDR ended up doing the opposite although he maintained his belief in balanced budgets during his first term.

Under what circumstances would FDR have been able to govern as the fiscal conservative that he campaigned as? Would a minor recession during Herbert Hoover's Presidency have done the trick?

 

[TinyTartar]

FDR was going to reform things in some fashion, but balancing the budget was hot air meant to satisfy on the fence middle class voters who actually had a job still; the poor did not really grasp what it meant and did not particularly care either.

However, it was the winter of 1932-33 that really shaped his priorities. FDR likely was not going to go as far as he did if that winter was not as horrible as it was. It affected him on a personal level as his writings indicated and shifted his focus heading into office.

 

[David T]

Whenever people talk about the early New Deal, they usually forget that one of the major legislative features of the Hundred Days was as *un*Keynesian as you can get--the Economy Act: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_Act_of_March_20,_1933 And it didn't go nearly as far as FDR wanted: he wanted it to cut federal spending by 500 million dollars, not the $243 million it did. Evidently FDR thought that whatever relief and public works spending the Great Depression required (and he hoped they would not last long) their impact on the deficit could be offset by cutting spending in other areas and by repealing Prohibition to give the government a new source of revenue.

 

[Mumph]

I think you'd need different circumstances in the election than the economy for FDR to remain a fiscal conservative. If there's only a minor recession and that's it Hoover probably wins.