“I do not regard the Communists as any present or future threat to our country, in fact, I look upon Russia as our strongest ally in the years to come. As I told you when you began your investigation, you should confine yourself to Nazis and Fascists. While I do not believe in Communism, Russia is far better off and the world is safer with Russia under Communism than under the Czars. Stalin is a great leader, and although I deplore some of his methods, it is the only way he can safeguard his government.”
~ Democrat hero, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1940
On February 5, 1937, Franklin Delano Roosevelt announced his court stacking plan. It was a controversial plan to expand the Supreme Court to as many as 15 judges, allegedly to make it more efficient. Critics immediately charged that Roosevelt was trying to “pack” the court and thus neutralize Supreme Court justices hostile to his New Deal.
During the previous two years, the high court had struck down several key pieces of New Deal legislation on the grounds that the laws delegated an unconstitutional amount of authority to the executive branch and the federal government.
He Didn’t Have Support Then
Most Republicans and many Democrats in Congress opposed the so-called “court-packing” plan.
In April, however, before the bill came to a vote in Congress, two Supreme Court justices came over to the liberal side and by a narrow majority upheld as constitutional the National Labor Relations Act and the Social Security Act.
The majority opinion acknowledged that the national economy had grown to such a degree that federal regulation and control was now warranted. Roosevelt’s reorganization plan was thus unnecessary, and in July the Senate struck it down by a vote of 70 to 22.
Soon after, Roosevelt had the opportunity to nominate his first Supreme Court justice, and by 1942 all but two of the justices were his appointees.
A Ruthless FDR Abused His Power
FDR went further than any president before him in abusing his power and he was not very principled. He gave subsidies to voting groups. Thus, the Democrats become a coalition of groups who get subsidies from Democrats. He built the modern-day Democrat Party.
Paying farmers not to produce is an FDR concept. It didn’t solve the problem, but he got farmers to vote for him.
He also redistributed income and was not creating jobs. That is why unemployment remained at over 20%.
Quid Pro Quo
To get a job under his WPA, you basically needed to be a Democrat. That made the people Democrat Party operatives who can’t be fired.
The counties getting the most money were Democrats and the ones who received little were Republicans. The first welfare program sent one-third of the funds to Illinois or Pennsylvania to flip the states Democrat.
He was a quid pro quo guy and kept tabs on congressmen and how they voted before they got money.
The massive bureaucratic state feeds Democrats and Democrats feed the bureaucracy. It’s their bureaucracy.
Roosevelt used the IRS against his opponents, especially if anyone tried to lower tax rates — up to 94%.
Watch historian Burton Folsom:
Subscribe to the Daily Newsletter
wpDiscuz
