Building upon the ideals of fellow-Republican Abraham Lincoln two score years before, President Theodore Roosevelt believed that the Constitution of the Union was the same Constitution of individual liberties facing a new threat. In the early years of the 20th century, the threat to personal liberties was not secession but the domination of Big Business in the form of large corporations and industry trusts. In 1901, TR informed Congress that "great corporations exist only because they are created and safeguarded by our institutions; and it is therefore our right and our duty to see that they work in harmony with those institutions." He asserted that the Federal government is a public institution (in the words of Lincoln, "of the people, by the people, for the people") and therefore had the responsibility to protect everybody by regulating business practices, ending corporate abuses of consumers, and preventing business trusts and monopolies that restrained free trade and fixed higher prices.
Three decades later, TR's concept of the Federal government as the public institution of the people to protect themselves was furthered by another Roosevelt, this time a Democrat. Franklin D. Roosevelt reflected a widely held view that the Crash of 1929 and the subsequent Great Depression were caused by the greedy Wall Street crowd, abusive banks, and short-sighted manufacturers. FDR argued that it was the role of the Federal government to manage an "economic constitutional order" that protected individuals from unethical and greedy business interests and maintained a balance between legitimate business interests and the right of each American to make a comfortable living. The power of the Federal government extended beyond just commercial regulation at the national level to include the redistribution of wealth concentration through taxes and public programs that put money directly into the pockets of individual consumers, even the chronically unemployed and poor.
Ever since FDR defeated President Herbert Hoover in 1932, conservative Republicans have condemned the concepts of both President Roosevelts. They have sought to curtail if not terminate government regulations of businesses and the lingering "big spending"programs of the New Deal, such as Social Security, food stamps, and other aid programs in the spirit of the New Deal, such as Medicare, Medicaid, and Obamacare.
To advance their cause, conservatives have waged a vigorous and persistent ideological war to undercut the conceptual foundation of the New Deal. They have reverted to the arguments of the anti-Federalists of the 1780s. They have asserted with increasing anger that Big Government is not the friend or protector of the people but rather its enemy. The Federal government endangers free enterprise, the freedom to work hard, make money, and enjoy the full benefits of property, so they claim. Their point of view gained much support following the Great Recession of 2007-2009, which was blamed on Big Government rather than Big Business. A popular belief was spread by radio talk shows, 24/7 cable TV news, and tabloids that Washington curtailed economic growth by over-regulation, excessive environmental controls, high taxes, and bad foreign trade agreements. It was also accepted that "give-away" programs to undeserving people discouraged individual initiative, hard work, and full employment.
The U.S. Supreme Court in numerous cases has upheld the constitutional power of Congress to regulate interstate commerce and impose taxes. The core questions are matters of policy: Congress should regulate what businesses, how, where, and when? And such questions turn on complex interactions among partisan politics, personalities, and vested interests as well as ideals. An even more fundamental question centers on who benefits most from the existence or absence of Federal government regulations?
(C) 2019 Stephen M. Millett (all rights reserved)
