You know, the standard lie that he didn't get us out of the Depression.
Fact? In his first term, the unemployment rate was cut almost in half. Then, in his second term, when he listened to Wall Street nattering about balancing the budget, and abandoned "stimulus" ideas (listening, Obama?) unemployment went back up and the economy fell into recession.
As for the claim that postwar tax cuts stimulated the economy? Here's the info that Hillsdale College (BIG conservative red flag) professor Burt Folsom presents:
Income tax rates were cut across the board. FDR's top marginal rate, 94% on all income over $200,000, was cut to 86.45%. The lowest rate was cut to 19% from 23%, and with a change in the amount of income exempt from taxation an estimated 12 million Americans were eliminated from the tax rolls entirely.
Thoughts ...
First, this ISN'T "supply side as practiced today. By percentage of drop, and with income baselines subject to taxation being shifted, this was definitely targeted at the lower end of the scale in a way that would give today's GOP apoplexy.
Second, Folsom ignores things like federal mortgage guarantees, the GI Bill making sure many ex-soldiers were college students and not newly-unemployed, and more.
Contra Mr. Folsom, what really "runs on" is the myth that FDR had nothing to do with ending the Depression.
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