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Highways
Upon entering office, President Dewey was determined to not become a Permanent Lame Duck the way his predecessor had been. And so, having come to the the conclusion Truman's administration went the way it did because he could not get his agenda through Congress, Dewey decided that he not only needed to defeat the 81st Congress, but to break the 81st Congress. In order to do this, he needed an issue that he could act on while simultaneously opposing Congress and having popular support among the electorate. Throughout the entire transition period, Dewey was thinking what this hypothetical issue could possibly be. Then, after a Conversation with Secretary of Defense Dwight Eisenhower, he had his issue.