The Presidency of Thomas Dewey
The first test of Dewey's leadership was when the President was determined to pass a budget for the coming fiscal year. His budget was actually quite liberal. Far from the usual "balance the budget" Conservative Republican, Dewey's budget called for increased spending in Social Security, slightly less in other domestic programs, and massive spending on the Military. Dewey calls his budget "Essential, our military must be kept strong, to combat Communism," surprisingly, Senate Minority leader Alben Barkley expressed support for the Dewey budget. Not surprisingly, the leading opposition to the Dewey budget was Dewey's chief Republican Rival: Robert Taft, calling the budget: "
The same nonsense I fought against for years, while the President was Roosevelt's poster boy." Despite much opposition from Southern Democrats, and Taft Republicans, the budget easily passed.
Dewey was also a interventionist when it came to Foreign policy, the President got the United States to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO. He was also a rabid anti communist, when North Korea invaded South Korea in June, 1950, Dewey was first to denounce "Communist Agression", and declared a police action in sending over US troops to South Korea.
South Korean Troops marching
Yet Another problem that Dewey faced was also from his own Party. Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin gained nationwide prominence when he claimed in a speech in West Virginia that he had a list of 205 known Communists working in the State Department. Although the Senator refused to turn over the list to the Dewey Administration, his speech, along with news that Mao Zedong and his Communists had taken over China, and the fact that several people such as Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, had already been charged with Communist Espionage, produced a Second Red Scare in the United States, the politicians would use to their advantage. As ordered by President Dewey, both the Rosenberg's were executed June 19, 1953. The public response prompted Senate Majority Leader Kenneth Weery to call for the creation of a committee to investigate communist infiltration in the state department. The bipartisan committee was chaired by McCarthy, with Strom Thurmond (D-SC) the ranking member. Dewey was very skeptical of this committee in private,But Dewey did not wish to look "weak on Communism", so publicly Dewey supported the Committee. Dewey did take advantage of it by urging reform of the State Department.
Since the Dewey Administration was fairly popular, and the Red Scare purging some Left- leaning Democrats, the Republicans slightly increased their majority in the Senate, but lost seats in the House of Representatives.
1950 Midterms
Senate
Republicans: 54 (+4)
Democrats: 42 (-4)
House
Republicans: 234 (-12)
Democrats: 200 (+12)