Economics Of Eisenhower Essay Research Paper In

Economics Of Eisenhower Essay, Research Paper

In November of 1952 General Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected to the office of

President of the United States. It was the first time a Republican was elected since

Herbert Hoover in 1928. The Eisenhower administration started at a rather awkward

time, both politically and economically. First of all there was a war on. The Korean War

had begun in June of 1950 and was still waging. As was usual for wartime the country

was economically prosperous. However, the war had caused President Truman to

abandon his former restraints on government spending. The amount of money being

spent on defense skyrocketed to supply the troops in Korea with the supplies they needed.

This caused the federal deficit to increase dramatically (Pach and Richardson, 53).

Another legacy leftover from the Truman days was that of the Fair Deal domestic

program. Although Truman found much opposition to his programs in Congress he

managed to get several things done. Such as a public housing bill, an expansion of social

security coverage, and increased minimum wages. The Republican party was not in favor

of the majority of this legislation. Thus when Eisenhower was elected they immediately

made plans for cutbacks in the spending on these programs. Unfortunately for them the

newly elected president was not opposed to the programs Truman had began and

improved upon. Over the course of his administration Eisenhower often did not hold the

same opinions as some of the members of his party.

As the Chief Economic advisor to the President of the United States there are

many different issues which I must consider. These issues are both large and small,

foreign and domestic, and affect the upper, middle, and lower classes. At this point in

time there are several important concerns which I have. The Korean War is ending and

this is going to have a profound affect on the economy of the United States. During the

war the country was prosperous but afterward there is always a high risk of increased

inflation and an increase in unemployment. These conditions have the ability to cause a

recession. Now that an armistice has been reached in Korea, a recession is beginning to

occur (Pach and Richardson, 54).

I believe that the President s chief concern should not be to make an immediate

and fast acting restoration of the general economy. The problems of the federal deficit

and the recession must wait until the more important problems are dealt with. The

problem at hand is the rising rate of unemployment. This problem must be dealt with

immediately with strong actions. I suggest implementing federal public works projects

as a way of creating jobs without burdening the government with additional expenses.

Ideas for these public works projects are: the construction of a Saint Lawrence Seaway,

and an Interstate Highway System. This system would be a massive undertaking and

would be one of the largest construction projects of all time but it would create many jobs

for Americans who are no longer employed by the war effort (Branyan and Larsen, 251).

The Republican party has not been happy with the nations economic policies for

quite some time. These are the policies of the Democrats, and more specifically those of

the New Deal and the Fair Deal. These social programs, such as social security and

welfare have been a drain on the federal budget for quite some time. Republicans feel

that the time has come to start cutting back the amount of money being spent on such

programs or at least curtail the yearly increases. However, there are times when a

political leader must make their own decisions and not base the way they run their

administration on the influences from their party. It would be better for the economic

health of the nation to maintain all of the social programs started under the Roosevelt and

Truman administrations. While this would normally pose a problem to the federal budget

it will not due to current conditions. The amount of money formerly spent on national

security, meaning military and defense spending has been severely reduced (Albertson,

139). This frees up a large amount of money to be used for other goals. These goals

should be those of improving the standard of living for each and every American and not

the immediate reduction of taxes, a goal which many members of the Republican party

would like to see pursued. The programs initiated in the policies of the New Deal and

Fair Deal should not simply be maintained, instead they should be expanded upon. I

suggest that the Social Security system be amended to include benefits for self-employed

farmers and disabled workers.

While there is much work to be done on economic policy domestically, the

foreign policy must be dealt with as well. One of the most important aspects of foreign

economic policy is that of trade. There are different ways for a government to legislate

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