Subtitled “How FDR’s Economic Legacy Has Damaged America” by Burton Folsom, Jr., is an antidote to the progressive historians’, notably Arthur Schlesinger and William Leuchtenburg, lavish praise of Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt. Contending that FDR’s policies prolonged the depression of the 1930s, Folsom, a professor of history at Hillsdale College, argues that the country would likely have done better had FDR followed his campaign promises in 1932 to cut spending and pursue a balanced budget without raising taxes.
Concerning taxes, an interesting reversal: In 1929 the feds collected $1.096 billion from the income tax and $540 million from excise taxes. By 1935 the figures were $527 million from the income tax and $1.364 billion from excise taxes. The shift worked to the disadvantage of lower-income earners.
Roosevelt’s pettiness, lying, and duplicity seem familiar to observers of the Obama presidency. Several sections seem to be written with Pres. Obama in mind until you recall that the book was published in 2008.