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U.S. History 1877-Present 8.6b: FDR and The New Deal 20 Views


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Description:

TL;DR: We were in a hurry and the bills were pretty long, so Congress didn't read them.

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:04

President Roosevelt called Congress into special session on march

00:08

9th 1933 determined to put his plan of bold persistent experimentation into [Roosevelt calling congress to put forward a plan]

00:15

action what ensued was called the hundred days and it gave Congress a

00:21

serious workout by stirring up a flurry of legislation never before seen in the [Man with congress logo over his face working out]

00:25

US well on the very first day of the special session Congress passed

00:29

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

00:33

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

00:39

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

00:44

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

00:48

bank failures then the house passed Roosevelt banking bill unanimously after

00:53

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

00:57

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

01:01

Secretary of the Interior all right representative Robert Loose captured the

01:05

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

01:10

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

01:15

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

01:21

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

01:24

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

01:28

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

01:33

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

01:38

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

01:42

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

01:46

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

01:51

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

01:55

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

01:59

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

02:03

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

02:08

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

02:11

creation of work programs like the WPA and the CCC

02:15

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

02:18

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

02:23

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

02:27

corporation yeah which helped homeowners refinance their mortgages so that they

02:32

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

02:36

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

02:40

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

02:44

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

02:48

banking there was also the Agricultural Adjustment Act which subsidized price

02:52

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

02:56

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

03:00

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

03:04

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

03:09

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]

03:13

bought save prohibition via filibuster impatient House members invaded the

03:18

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

03:22

momentarily feel like a frat house neither the Democrats nor the

03:26

Republicans rechristened themselves as a party hearty

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