Work in progress — cycles are added one at a time. Every quote is machine-verified against an archived source; follow the links to read it.

Reduce the expenses of government as relief needs decline — Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1936

Similar by solution solution · rationale

Score	Cycle	Candidate	Issue	Position
0.62	1936	Franklin D. Roosevelt	Balancing the federal budget	Balance the budget within a year or two out of rising national income, without new taxes
0.60	1932	Franklin D. Roosevelt	Public works as employment policy	Public works spending is only a stopgap, not a cure for unemployment
0.60	1932	Franklin D. Roosevelt	Balancing the federal budget	Balance the federal budget annually within revenues
0.58	1932	Herbert Hoover	Level of federal spending	Cut federal spending $1.5 billion below fiscal 1932 and reorganize the executive branch
0.58	1932	Herbert Hoover	Balancing the federal budget	A balanced budget as 'the foundation of all public and private financial stability'
0.54	1936	Franklin D. Roosevelt	Level of federal spending	Defense of the eight-billion-dollar deficit as an investment in America
0.52	1932	Herbert Hoover	European war debts and reparations	No cancellation of war debts; apply any annual payment to opening foreign markets for American farm products
0.52	1932	Norman Thomas	Unemployment insurance	Compulsory unemployment insurance funded by employers and by higher income and inheritance taxes
0.51	1932	Norman Thomas	Federal responsibility for relief	A $5 billion federal appropriation for immediate relief of those in need
0.51	1936	Alf Landon	Unemployment insurance	Leave unemployment insurance to State experiment; no federal tax to compel it
0.50	1936	Alf Landon	How to finance old-age and unemployment insurance (contributory reserve vs. pay-as-you-go)	Repeal the compulsory old-age insurance plan; pay every needy citizen over 65 a pension from a direct, widely distributed tax
0.50	1932	Franklin D. Roosevelt	Local government consolidation and the tax burden on land	Presidential leadership to consolidate local governments and lift the tax burden on land
0.50	1936	Alf Landon	Balancing the federal budget	Balance the budget by cutting expenditures, not by raising taxes
0.50	1932	Franklin D. Roosevelt	Level of federal spending	Cut the cost of the federal government by at least 25 percent
0.49	1936	Franklin D. Roosevelt	Direct relief for the unemployed	Provide useful work at prevailing wages for the needy unemployed rather than a dole
0.49	1932	Franklin D. Roosevelt	Level of military spending	An adequate Army and Navy without a near-billion-dollar peacetime burden
0.48	1932	Herbert Hoover	Federal responsibility for relief	Relief through voluntary mobilization and local responsibility, with RFC loans to exhausted states — no federal dole
0.48	1932	Franklin D. Roosevelt	Income and inheritance tax progressivity	Raise revenue by graduated income, inheritance and profits taxes, not taxes on necessities
0.47	1932	Franklin D. Roosevelt	Farm prices and agricultural surplus	Raise staple farm prices by a tariff-equivalent benefit plus voluntary production control, at no cost to the Treasury
0.47	1932	Franklin D. Roosevelt	Federal responsibility for relief	Federal leadership in distress relief — federal credit to states whose resources are exhausted
0.47	1932	Franklin D. Roosevelt	European war debts and reparations	No cancellation of the war debts — make payment possible by restoring trade
0.47	1936	Franklin D. Roosevelt	Farm prices and agricultural surplus	Continue soil conservation and domestic allotment payments; end ruinous surpluses; commodity loans on seasonal surpluses
0.47	1932	Alfred E. Smith	European war debts and reparations	A twenty-year moratorium on the war debts, writing them off in proportion to each nation's purchases of American goods
0.47	1936	Franklin D. Roosevelt	How to finance old-age and unemployment insurance (contributory reserve vs. pay-as-you-go)	Defense of the payroll-tax financing: the employer pays an equal share and the reserves are safe
0.46	1932	Franklin D. Roosevelt	Restoring the commodity price level (reflation)	Restore commodity prices toward their former dollar value rather than write down all debts