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Obama's No FDR

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MARSHA MERCER Media General News Service

The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 1, 2009

WASHINGTON - Here's what we know about the Obama presidency so far. It's not 1933, we're not in the Great Depression and Barack Obama is not FDR.

If it were, if we were, if he were, House Republicans would have rushed to help pass the president's first piece of economic legislation.

That's what happened days after Franklin D. Roosevelt took office in 1933. Faced with a banking emergency and a frightened nation desperate for action, both houses of Congress approved the legislation in a peacetime record of seven hours.

In 2009, faced with dire economic conditions, Obama's first piece of economic legislation is galloping through Congress. But the stimulus package the House approved Wednesday passed without a single Republican vote. Unlike FDR, Obama couldn't scare up bipartisanship.

Perhaps that's because as bad as our economy is - with waves of layoffs, home foreclosures and businesses going bust - it's not the Great Depression. Not 10,000 banks in collapse, a quarter or more of the population jobless and millions hungry or living in cardboard boxes. The day after Roosevelt's inauguration, he closed the banks for a four-day "bank holiday."

FDR's first piece of economic legislation brought a process to allow the reopening of banks that were financially secure. Adam Cohen writes in his book, "Nothing to Fear," that when the House banking committee chairman walked into the House chamber with the only copy of the bill, he shouted, "Here's the bill; let's pass it."

And that's what the House did - passed it without dissent, even though members hadn't received a copy of the bill to read. The bill sped to the Senate where it passed 73 to 7.

The New York Times reported the next day: "The president urged action, and he got action. Senators who for years had held unswervingly to certain convictions on banking and currency swallowed them in the urge for speed in the banking crisis. Leaders of the opposition party laid down a plea for the support of President Roosevelt with as much feeling as if he had been the champion of their own band."

Leaders of the opposition party may yet plead for support of Obama. For now, the united GOP front argues that Obama's prescription is too heavy on spending and too light on tax cuts. The Republicans are holding out for changes in the Senate version of the bill.

Many Republicans warn that Obama is a latter-day FDR, who pushed through 14 pieces of legislation in the early months of his administration. Critics contend that could lead to socialism, and, besides, we can't afford such sweeping and costly moves in a time of astronomical budget deficits.

There are similarities in approach. FDR railed in his inaugural address against "unscrupulous money changers." Obama Thursday lambasted Wall Street bankers who gave themselves $20 billion worth of bonuses "at a time when most of these institutions were teetering on collapse and ... asking for taxpayers to sustain them...

"That is the height of irresponsibility," he said. "It is shameful."

While they strike similar chords and may be on similar paths, Obama seems to have learned from FDR's missteps.

Many economists say FDR's measures didn't go far enough. In the mid-30s, FDR made the depression worse, they say, by exercising fiscal restraint. It took the massive stimulus of World War II to pump up the economy.

Obama is determined not to make FDR's mistake of stopping too soon. After a private meeting on Capitol Hill with Republicans, the blog buzz was that Obama had said FDR's initial steps worked, but his plan was too small.

The White House didn't release Obama's remarks, but Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said something similar in an interview published Sunday in The New York Times Magazine.

"The mistake the United States made during the Depression and the Japanese made during the '90s was too much start-stop in their policies," Geithner told reporter David Leonhardt.

Already, the White House is signaling that the $819 billion package making its way through Congress is just the first phase of what's needed to jumpstart the economy. The Obama team plans to keep spending as long as it takes.

What do you think? Comment at mgwashington.com or e-mail mmercer@mediageneral.com.

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