- Veterans Administration Created
President Hoover, in his 1929 State of the Union message, proposed consolidating agencies administering veterans benefits. The following year Congress created the Veterans Administration by uniting three bureaus - the previously independent Veterans' Bureau, the Bureau of Pensions and the National Homes for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers. President Hoover signed the executive order establishing the VA on July 21, 1930. Hines, who had served since 1923 as director of the Veterans' Bureau, was named the first administrator of the agency.
The new agency was responsible for medical services for war veterans; disability compensation and allowances for World War I veterans; life insurance; bonus certificates; retirement payments for emergency officers; Army and Navy pensions; and retirement payments for civilian employees. During the next decade, from 1931 to 1941, VA hospitals would increase from 64 to 91, and the number of beds would rise from 33,669 to 61,849.
In March 1933, President Roosevelt persuaded Congress to pass the "Economy Act." A response to the Great Depression, the measure included a repeal of all previous laws granting benefits for veterans of the Spanish-American War and all subsequent conflicts and periods of peacetime service.
It also gave the President authority to issue new veterans benefits. Roosevelt then promulgated regulations that radically reduced veterans benefits. When the President's authority to establish benefits by executive order expired in 1935, Congress reenacted most of the laws that had been in effect earlier."
Another fragile group FDR's new tax programs (tripled during the Depression) nearly destroyed was African Americans--one of his "new deals" threw half a million blacks out of work by raising wages above market levels and allowing union goons to organize by going after employees and employers alike with violence. Has a familiar ring, doesn't it?
Posts
8 comments:
Didn't we learn about this in American history class--like half a sentence?
And we all know the Conservatives have always had only the best in mind for the country's veterans.
Bonus March: 1932
"In 1924, World War I veterans were promised a bonus payment of $1,000 with payment due in 1945. As the Great Depression deepened in 1932, some 12,000 to 15,000 veterans and their families began to converge on Washington, D.C. to demand immediate payment of the bonus. The "Bonus Expeditionary Force" — or Bonus Army — camped out in shantytowns along the Anacostia River. According to the Library of Congress, by July of 1932, there were 25,000 in the Bonus camp, making it a potent symbol of shame for the President when referred to as the largest "Hooverville" in the country.
The House of Representatives proposed, the Patman Bonus Bill, which proposed immediate payment of the veterans' cash bonuses. However, facing formidable opposition of some Republicans and from President Hoover, who feared the nearly $2 billion cost, the bill was defeated in the Senate.
Though the bill had been defeated, many Bonus Marchers stayed in Washington. In late July, two bonus marchers were shot by police and riots ensured. President Hoover authorized the clearing of the Bonus Army camp by the military. Troops under the command of General Douglas MacArthur, including a machine-gun squadron and a number of tanks, the shantytown was destroyed and the marchers and families dispersed with tear gas. President Hoover's administration never recovered from the images of citizens fleeing before the troops."
That would comprise the other half of the sentence from your American history class.
And don't we know that your mother told you if your friend jumped off the cliff (played with matches, etc.) you shouldn't do likewise? Leftists are anti-war because it interfers with their plans; when it works on their behalf, they're all for it--will even get Hollywood in on it. Same attitude toward veterans. Same old, same old. Well, gee whiz mom, he did it--pointing finger with the other 3 in a fist pointing back at him.
Hoover and FDR are both to blame for bad decisions in the 30s. But FDR was far the worst and he's the one the history books extole.
Yeah, you're right, there was nothing admirable in what either of them did to the veterans. But as for FDR being far worse than Hoover, well, that's in the eye of the beholder. As a veteran myself, I find the act of ordering the US military to shoot WW1 veterans pretty hard to top.
As for your advice on finger pointing. And the reasons why someone is or isn't anti-war. I just have to say...right back at ya.
FDR was one of the greatest leaders America ever had. He was beloved by so many, he was the only President elected to 4 terms. In fact, they changed the rules after that, to impose term limits on the Presidency. You don't get 4 terms from the people, by being an unpopular President who did unpopular things. Does this mean he never made any mistakes? Hardly, FDR made plenty of missteps. So does every other President we have had. Specifically, you mentioned FDR cutting WW1 veterans benefits, as well as the unfortunate reaction he had to those veterans protests. Historically, both are true, and are black marks on his Presidency. What you failed to mention, was the fact that in 1944, FDR signed inbto law, the greatest veterans benefits package in the history of America, the GI Bill, which made the vast expansion of America that took place in the decade following his death possible.
I didn't say he wasn't a leader--he lead the country deeper and deeper into a depression and people continued to vote for him! 4 terms they let him lie and raise taxes, loving him anyway. That's incredible leadership and dumb voters. FDR was a brilliant politician, but none of his programs turned the economy around in the Depression. After the disastrous unemployed WWI veterans in the 1920s and 30s, the GI Bill was a very smart political move; and it was written by a female Republican.
Wikepedia: In 1944, Edith Rogers [Republican, Mass.] helped draft, and then co-sponsored the G. I. Bill, with Representative John E. Rankin, and Senators Ernest McFarland, and Bennett Champ Clark. The bill provided for education and vocational training, low-interest loans for homes, farms, and businesses, and limited unemployment benefits for returning servicemen. A secondary intent was to reduce the economic impact of the millions of veterans returning to the workforce by staggering their reentry. On June 22, 1944, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed "The Servicemen's Readjustment Act", which became Public Law 78-346. As a result of the bill, roughly half of the returning veterans went on to higher education.
She had also sponsored a bill to save European Jews, but FDR didn't support it.
Leftist are only anti-war after they have started the war...
Post a Comment