Between the Lines, Online: The Bush Deal

Peter Wehner, a key White House strategist, put it this way in a recent memo: "For the first time in six decades, the Social Security battle is one we can win--and in doing so, we can help transform the political and philosophical landscape of the country." The White House wasn't happy this leaked; it is claiming publicly with Orwellian logic that Bush wants simply to update the New Deal. But the history of this debate says otherwise.

The New Deal entered the language during Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt's speech accepting the Democratic nomination for president in 1932. It was originally just a catch-all phrase for his vaguely liberal platform, but soon took on a distinct ideological meaning.

That year, even many Democrats were appalled at the idea of FDR embracing what he called "the forgotten man." The progressive Al Smith, for instance, anticipated GOP arguments of later years by accusing FDR of fostering class warfare. Republican President Herbert Hoover was in many ways a progressive by today's standards--he had grown famous organizing relief efforts during World War I and favored raising taxes to balance the budget. But he was appalled at the idea of the federal government guaranteeing anyone, even old people, a decent standard of living. That was the job of business and voluntary associations. Americans, he felt, should be captains of their own fate.

The animating idea of the New Deal was something quite different--a new social contract under which we all owed each other something. Much of the New Deal was dedicated to increasing taxes, then using the money to prevent farm and home foreclosures and to help people back into the middle class with low-interest loans. Its centerpiece, Social Security, was about making sure the elderly felt in the autumn of their lives that they owned a bit of the American Dream, too. In a way, it was Roosevelt who invented the "ownership society." Tax revenues weren't "your money" but "our money"--an instrument for righting some moral wrongs, like octogenarians having to dig ditches to eat.