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.

Leave unemployment insurance to State experiment; no federal tax to compel it — Alf Landon, 1936

Similar by solution solution · rationale

Score	Cycle	Candidate	Issue	Position
0.81	1932	Franklin D. Roosevelt	Unemployment insurance	Unemployment insurance under state laws
0.65	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
0.64	1932	Norman Thomas	Unemployment insurance	Compulsory unemployment insurance funded by employers and by higher income and inheritance taxes
0.63	1932	Herbert Hoover	Local government consolidation and the tax burden on land	A national review of federal-state-local taxation to relieve farms and homes of property taxes
0.59	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
0.59	1932	Franklin D. Roosevelt	Public works as employment policy	Public works spending is only a stopgap, not a cure for unemployment
0.58	1932	Franklin D. Roosevelt	Public employment offices	A federally coordinated system of state employment offices (the vetoed Wagner bill)
0.57	1932	Franklin D. Roosevelt	Federal responsibility for relief	Federal leadership in distress relief — federal credit to states whose resources are exhausted
0.57	1932	Herbert Hoover	National Prohibition	Resubmit the Eighteenth Amendment so each state may decide, with constitutional guarantees against the saloon and against interference with dry states; enforce the law meanwhile
0.57	1936	William Lemke	Minimum wages	A 'living annual wage' -- $1,800 for a family of five -- by federal law and a constitutional amendment if necessary
0.56	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
0.56	1932	Herbert Hoover	Federal responsibility for relief	Relief through voluntary mobilization and local responsibility, with RFC loans to exhausted states — no federal dole
0.56	1932	Franklin D. Roosevelt	Overall role and scale of the federal government	Government as a check on concentrated economic power — "individualism" redefined as equality of opportunity
0.55	1936	Frank Knox	Amending the Constitution to enlarge (or restrain) federal power	New federal activities only when legalized by constitutional amendment -- 'the horse and buggy method'
0.55	1932	Herbert Hoover	Maintenance of wage levels in depression	Uphold wages and spread work by voluntary agreement of employers and labor; shorter hours in government service
0.54	1936	Alf Landon	Amending the Constitution to enlarge (or restrain) federal power	Wages, hours and child labor by State law and interstate compact -- and a constitutional amendment giving the States power if the courts forbid
0.54	1932	Albert C. Ritchie	National Prohibition	Repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment as a matter of states' rights
0.54	1936	Frank Knox	How to finance old-age and unemployment insurance (contributory reserve vs. pay-as-you-go)	The Social Security Act is 'unworkable and unsound' -- 'lip service to security'; a Republican administration would offer its own legislation
0.53	1932	Herbert Hoover	Public employment offices	Commend and continue the enlarged United States Employment Service
0.52	1932	Franklin D. Roosevelt	National Prohibition	Repeal the Eighteenth Amendment by state conventions; legalize beer now; states control liquor and bar the saloon
0.52	1932	Franklin D. Roosevelt	Balancing the federal budget	Balance the federal budget annually within revenues
0.52	1936	Franklin D. Roosevelt	Direct relief for the unemployed	Provide useful work at prevailing wages for the needy unemployed rather than a dole
0.52	1936	Frank Knox	Overall role and scale of the federal government	Fair, honest, economical and efficient government; preserve free enterprise against 'amateur economic planners'
0.52	1936	Franklin D. Roosevelt	Old-age pensions and social insurance	Build on the Social Security Act toward economic security for all
0.51	1936	Franklin D. Roosevelt	Level of federal spending	Reduce the expenses of government as relief needs decline