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1932 › Herbert Hoover (Republican) › Level of federal spending
Cut federal spending $1.5 billion below fiscal 1932 and reorganize the executive branch
pledge_forwardspecific_pledgecandidate_directevidence A Federal Budget & SpendingExecutive Power⚡ The Great Depression similar solutions · similar reasoning
Solution
Reduce expenditure by a further $1,500 million from fiscal 1932 totals if the House cooperates; use the reorganization authority Congress finally granted (effective only after the next Congress approves) to abolish obsolete bureaus and commissions; continue vetoing 'raids upon the Public Treasury.'
Rationale
Ordinary expenses excluding depression relief are already $200–300 million below 1927–29; the Democratic House added $3.5 billion in spending bills; reorganization has been urged for seven years.
Statements (7)
We urge prompt and drastic reduction of public expenditure and resistance to every appropriation not demonstrably necessary to the performance of government, national or local.
Efficiency and economy demand reorganization of government bureaus. The problem is nonpartisan and must be so treated if it is to be solved.
I have repeatedly for 7 years urged the Congress either themselves to abolish obsolete bureaus and commissions and to reorganize the whole Government structure in the interest of economy, or to give someone the authority to do it. I have succeeded partially in securing that authority, but I regret that no great act under it can be effective until after the approval of the next Congress.
I shall repeat these proposals for economy. The opposition leadership in the House of Representatives in the last 4 months secured the passage by that House of $3 billion in raids upon the Public Treasury. They have been stopped, and I shall continue to oppose such raids.
If we are supported by the American people, and if the Democratic House will cooperate, I will make for the next fiscal year a reduction from the totals of 1932, not a reduction of a billion but of $1,500 million.
My only comment on this occasion is that if I receive a mandate from the American people in this election, I shall be able not only to force upon this Democratic House real economies, but I shall be able to stop further raids by the Democratic Party on the Treasury of the United States.
No nation can conscript its citizens for this proportion of men's and women's time without national impoverishment and without the destruction of their liberties.
'Today he works, theoretically, for the support of all forms of Government 61 days out of the year.'
Follow-through
not_applicable
Hoover lost the election; the pledge could not be tested in office. The reorganization authority Hoover won in June 1932 was killed by the Democratic House in January 1933; Roosevelt received broader authority in the Economy Act and reorganized farm credit and other agencies by executive order.
Enacted by others
| 1933-03-27 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | executive_order Executive Order 6084 and Economy Act reorganization authority | Consolidation Hoover had sought was carried out by his successor. source |
Reception (1)
The Hoover administration is the greatest peacetime spender in history, piling bureau on bureau.
I accuse the present Administration of being the greatest spending Administration in peace times in all our history.
Other positions on this issue
- Cut the cost of the federal government by at least 25 percent — Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1932 specific_pledge
- Defense of the eight-billion-dollar deficit as an investment in America — Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1936 directional_stance
- Reduce the expenses of government as relief needs decline — Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1936 directional_stance
1932-hoover-cut-expenditures-reorganize · created by claude-fable-5-1 · review: unreviewed