General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: FDR Democrats, check in here! [View all]michigandem58
(1,044 posts)But in the first of many concessions to legislative realities, as well as to anxiety about constitutional challengesnot to mention apprehension about perceived legitimacy in the eyes of the peopleFDR carved the jobs provision out of the big bill. It eventually passed as the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935. Among other things, it created the Works Progress Administration (WPA), an agency that employed millions in the Depression era but would disappear within less than a decade. More such concessions soon followed.
Compromise after compromise whittled FDRs grand vision for a comprehensive system of social provision down to what Perkins later glumly appraised as but a few practical, flat-footed first steps. Yet those first steps have proved hugely consequential for generations of Americansand their consequentiality may well be attributable to the very compromises that so dispirited Perkins. FDRs shortfall explains much about the limits of reform in the New Deal era, as well as the enduring contours of American socioeconomics.
Perhaps the most notable compromise, in light of recent history, concerned health care. Powerful elements of the medical profession were up in arms over the idea of any kind of government-endorsed system, noted Perkins. Sticking with the health provisions threatened to jeopardize the entire bill, so FDR reluctantly let them go. The dream of universal health care lingered over an unreachable horizon for the remainder of the century and beyond. But as Perkins recognized, to get anything accomplished at all, FDR had to take account of the prejudices of our people, and our legislative habits.
http://www.americanheritage.com/content/new-deal-compromised