U.S. History 1877-Present 8.6b: FDR and The New Deal

Roosevelt's bill to stabilize the country's failing banking system see in [Emergency banking act stamped]

his first days of office FDR had had to declare a nationwide bank holidays this [Newspapers headline for 4-day bank holiday]

didn't mean that all bankers went skiing though some probably did what it did mean was

that every bank in the country shut down which put a stop to a devastating run of [A closed bank store]

bank failures then the house passed Roosevelt banking bill unanimously after

just 38 minutes of debate without even seeing the text of the legislation it's a

shame Roosevelt didn't sneak in something fun like dubbing his cat the [Cat dressed in a suit]

Secretary of the Interior all right representative Robert Loose captured the

mood saying this is a case where judgment must be waived where argument [Robert Loose giving a speech]

must be silenced where we should take matters without criticism lest we may do

harm by delay so his reasoning amounted to well reading takes too long this was

far from the first or last time the bill was passed without being read as

terrifying as that might sound the Senate the self-proclaimed world's [People discussing matters in the senate]

greatest deliberative body took a few hours longer but still pass the bill by

a vote of 73 to 7 later that evening Roosevelt signed the bill into law less [Roosevelt signing a bill]

than eight hours after he sent it up to Capitol Hill on March twelfth Roosevelt

went on the radio for the first of his fireside chats in which he confidently [Roosevelt speaking on the radio]

reassured the American people that their banks were once again safe when the bank

holiday ended customers across country deposited more money than they withdrew [Customer depositing money into a bank]

and the banking crisis ended kind of sobering that that's all it

takes to both destabilize can restabilize a bank. Anyway after this

first success Roosevelt in Congress went bill crazy passing a ton of new [List of bills passed by Roosevelt]

legislation that made up the New Deal some of the highlights included the

creation of work programs like the WPA and the CCC

which put unemployed Americans to work in all kinds of projects from building [Americans working different public sector jobs]

airports in national parks to writing poems and plays yeah poets and

playwrights needed to eat too people then there was the homeowners loan

corporation yeah which helped homeowners refinance their mortgages so that they

didn't lose their homes and there was also the Federal Emergency Relief

Administration that sent cashed the states to help citizens who were hurting [USA with a band-aid stuck on]

the most no the list seriously goes on and on like about how the glass-steagall

Banking Act created a firewall between investment banking and commercial [A firewall between the Glass-Steagall Banking Act]

banking there was also the Agricultural Adjustment Act which subsidized price

supports for farmers and took the u.s. off the gold standard as if that wasn't

enough FDR in Congress also slashed government spending by cutting half a [Government spending with slash marks through]

billion dollars a lot of money in those days in scheduled payments to veterans

and federal employees oh and about a week after that they ended prohibition by

legalizing the sale of beer and wine when a few old line dry senators [Legalization of beer and wine on the front of a newspaper]

bought save prohibition via filibuster impatient House members invaded the

Senate chamber chanting vote vote we want beer while Capitol Hill did [Man walks into the Senate and shouts Vote, Vote!]

momentarily feel like a frat house neither the Democrats nor the

Republicans rechristened themselves as a party hearty