On CBS’s Sunday Morning, correspondent Chip Reid compared Obama’s economic plan to that of Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal: "During the Great Depression, Franklin Delano Roosevelt started the Works Progress Administration, the WPA. It would put 8.5 million to work...Now a new American president-elect is vowing to put the country back to work. This Sunday Morning, we'll take a look back at the WPA. And the lessons it may hold for him and for the nation." Reid later played a clip of Obama addressing the economic crisis and then observed: "In 1933, another new president faced a collapsing economy and rallied the nation with similar words...75 years ago, Franklin Delano Roosevelt began the New Deal."
In a segment that was a glowing tribute to FDR and the New Deal, Reid described Obama’s economic plan as a triumphant return of big government: "And now, President- elect Obama is talking about his own jobs program, that could cost half a trillion dollars. Economic analyst Jeff Madrick believes Mr. Obama is also sending a very clear message." Madrick observed: "Well, I think the government is back and we're all the better for it. In fact, the government's been away at least since Ronald Reagan." Reid touted Madrick’s latest book: "Madrick recently published 'The Case for Big Government.' He says today, as in the Depression, only government action can stop an economic dive to an unknown bottom." Reid did wonder: "So who's going to pay for big government?" Madrick replied: "I think down the road higher taxes, even on the middle class -- and I know this is anathema right now -- will be necessary to pay for the social programs we need."
Reid did also talk to Alan Vinard of the American Enterprise Institute, explaining: "And today, as back in Roosevelt's time, some question whether such government stimulus programs really work." Vinard argued: "I think it's a bad idea to be doing a large multi-hundred billion dollar program of infrastructure spending on short notice...Then it means we have wasted hundreds of billions of dollars piling up additional debt for us and our children to pay in the future."
Here is the full transcript of the segment:
9:00AM TEASE:
CHARLES OSGOOD: As you can see, we're getting a head start on Christmas this morning. Trying to spread what cheer we can at a time when so many Americans are worried about their jobs and so many others have already lost theirs. Getting people back to work is a top priority, which is why there's so much interest now in a government program of the 1930s, called the WPA. This morning, Chip Reid will be reporting our cover story.
CHIP REID: During the Great Depression, Franklin Delano Roosevelt started the Works Progress Administration, the WPA. It would put 8.5 million to work.
UNIDENTIFIED SINGERS: Three little letters that make life okay, WPA.
NICK TAYLOR: It gave people jobs, which lubricated the economy, and also gave America a new face.
REID: Now a new American president-elect is vowing to put the country back to work. This Sunday Morning, we'll take a look back at the WPA. And the lessons it may hold for him and for the nation.
9:05AM TEASE:
OSGOOD: Next, remembering the back-to- work projects of the WPA.
9:08AM SEGMENT:
CHARLES OSGOOD: The economic crisis of late has some people looking back to a set of old initials, WPA. You're thinking perhaps that New Deal program will serve as a model for our times. Our Sunday Morning cover story is reported now by Chip Reid.
CHIP REID: Anxiety and fear surround workers this holiday season. Last month half a million people lost their jobs, more than two million since last December.
BARACK OBAMA: We need action. And action now. That's why I've asked my economic team to develop an economic recovery plan for both Wall Street and main street that will help save or create at least 2.5 million jobs.
FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT: This nation is asking for action, and action now.
REID: In 1933, another new president faced a collapsing economy and rallied the nation with similar words.
ROOSEVELT: Our greatest primary task is to put people to work.
REID: 75 years ago, Franklin Delano Roosevelt began the New Deal.
UNIDENTIFIED SINGER: What you're talking about is the WPA.
REID: What was truly new, in fact, revolutionary, was his conviction that the federal government had a direct responsibility to create jobs and pay for them with tax dollars.
UNIDENTIFIED SINGERS: Three little letters that make life okay, WPA.
NICK TAYLOR: When Franklin Roosevelt was inaugurated, 13 to 15 million people were out of work. Cities all around the country. People standing in line, often rags for shoes, wearing thread bare overcoats, shuffling along in the snow to get a cup of soup or a piece of bread.
REID: Nick Taylor is author of a new book called ‘American Made.’ It examines the New Deal program, the Works Progress Administration. It was a complete break from Herbert Hoover and past presidents, who believed that only corporations create jobs and only private charities should take care of the poor.
TAYLOR: Hoover said ‘if only somebody could write a song or a poem or tell a joke that would make people forget about the Depression.’ He wasn't doing anything about it in terms of the government's force.
ROOSEVELT: When there is no vision, the people perish.
TAYLOR: In comes FDR, and the first thing he did was to provide relief, direct relief. Some people got checks. Some people got surplus food stuffs. But eventually the idea was to provide jobs.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: I got a position at this bank after being out of work for two years, and am I happy.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: I got a new job and it's great to be working again.
REID: The WPA lasted eight years, from 1935 to 1943, and left a mark on America that is still visible today.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN B: As an aid to traffic, hundreds of new bridges have been completed, designed to withstand high waters and the pounding of heavy loads.
REID: It spent $11 billion, employed 8.5 million people.
MAN B: In all these construction projects local labor is employed.
REID: New roads were built, 650,000 miles of them. And new airports, including New York City's Laguardia Airport. New schools were built, and the public school lunch program got its start with WPA dollars.
TAYLOR: Attendance increased. It was something that raised the health of the country.
MAN B: Countless thousands of men, women, and children each year make use of the new facility.
REID: FDR thought people needed places for recreation, so the WPA repaired and enlarged the national park system. But Roosevelt and Harry Hopkins, the man who headed the WPA, knew there was more to life than bricks and mortar.
TAYLOR: The great thing that Roosevelt and Harry Hopkins recognized was that it made no sense whatsoever to take an excellent violin player and put him to work building a road. He could provide, or she could provide, entertainment to people and enlightenment. And that's why the WPA. had an umbrella over arts projects as well as construction.
REID: So in 1941, Woody Guthry was paid to write songs for a month, as he visited the new dams under construction along the
Columbia River in Washington State.
WOODY GUTHRY [SINGING]: The Columbia River and the Big Grand Cooley Dam.
REID: WPA also financed 225,000 concerts, attended by 150 million Americans. Actors appeared in stage productions across the country. Artists painted murals on countless public buildings, like these at Laguardia's Marine Air Terminal in New York. The WPA financed nearly half a million works of art. Some are on display here at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington. How important was this arts program to the artists themselves?
GEORGE GURNEY: Well, for many of them it was a Godsend because it allowed them to continue to work, whereas they wouldn't have been able to do so otherwise.
REID: George Gurney, the deputy chief curator at the museum, says many of the WPA works show the strength and promise of the country. This is Ray Strong's painting of the Golden Gate Bridge under construction.
GURNEY: Here was an artist showing what we're going to be able to do, what we can do. We're a nation that can do.
REID: Earl Richardson, who was African-American, painted this scene of southern workers in the field. What message was he trying to convey with this painting?
GURNEY: He was trying to convey that, you know, blacks in America contribute like everybody else.
REID: Author Nick Taylor says, in the end, the very definition of the American worker was transformed by the WPA.
TAYLOR: To envision the worker not as a commodity, but as a resource.
OBAMA: We are facing an economic crisis of historic proportions.
REID: And now, President- elect Obama is talking about his own jobs program, that could cost half a trillion dollars. Economic analyst Jeff Madrick believes Mr. Obama is also sending a very clear message.
JEFF MADRICK: Well, I think the government is back and we're all the better for it. In fact, the government's been away at least since Ronald Reagan.
REID: Madrick recently published 'The Case for Big Government.' He says today, as in the Depression, only government action can stop an economic dive to an unknown bottom.
MADRICK: If we spend money at the federal level at propitious times we can get that bottom we're talking about and begin to recover as well. Unemployment comes down. Incomes rise again.
REID: And as FDR. did in the 1930s with the WPA., the new president's program starts with roads and highways and bridges.
MADRICK: Our infrastructure is a mess. Our education needs reform. We have not attended to our energy needs as people well know now.
REID: So who's going to pay for big government?
MADRICK: I think down the road higher taxes, even on the middle class -- and I know this is anathema right now -- will be necessary to pay for the social programs we need.
REID: Like all government programs, the WPA was not without critics. The term 'boondoggle' was coined to describe some of its projects. WPA., they said, stood for 'We Putter Around.' And today, as back in Roosevelt's time, some question whether such government stimulus programs really work.
ALAN VIARD: I think it's a bad idea to be doing a large multi-hundred billion dollar program of infrastructure spending on short notice.
REID: Alan Viard is an economist with the American Enterprise Institute in Washington.
VIARD: I really have two concerns. One is that the spending is not going to be quick enough to stimulate the economy. And the second is that it's not going to be good investments for the long run.
REID: And if they're not good investments, what happens?
VIARD: Then it means we have wasted hundreds of billions of dollars piling up additional debt for us and our children to pay in the future.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN C: Many thousands of such jobs as these dot the map of the United States. Giving work and hope to people who can't find jobs.
REID: History shows that Roosevelt's WPA lifted millions out of poverty, though author Nick Taylor does not believe the New Deal ended the Depression.
TAYLOR: Obviously the Depression ended with World War II and the humming factories that were producing munitions and tanks, and planes, and uniforms, and everything else. That funded the war effort.
REID: Yet in a time of serious economic stress and fear, Taylor says FDR had some advice the new president could use. Roosevelt said ‘the country demands bold, persistent experimentation. It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.’
