1939.01.07 “Big Budget Beauties”
By unknown
7 x 11 in., ink on board
Coppola Collection
After the January 6, 1939, Roosevelt’s State of the Union and Budget Message to Congress, headlines featured his spending proposals, tax policies, and deficit projections for fiscal 1940.
Criticisms abounded, as the New Deal was seen as a chorus line of over-laden annual budgets, all paraded by FDR. This perception of heft originated from the spiraling complexity of the budgets, reflecting both New Deal expenditures and the looming need for increased defense appropriations as the war escalated overseas. The need for leaner, more manageable fiscal policy was a conservative critique of the New Deal.
In January 1940, Time magazine wryly noted that the US federal budget was considered physically massive… about 4 pounds, 10 ounces.
