Was the New Deal a Success or Failure?

Rayna Cheong
Period 9
The Roosevelt Administrations and the New Deal Programs were not
successful in subduing the Great Depression and restoring the U.S. economy
because of the governments continuously increasing deficit spending and the
nations high unemployment rates.
As Franklin Roosevelt began to put his programs into effect, the United States
Government continued to spend more throughout the Great Depression in order to
fund these programs. The increase in government deficit spending is one example
of how Roosevelts plans were unsuccessful. The chart in Document 4 shows that in
1929, there was a government financial surplus of $0.734 billion, but in 1934, there
was a deficit of $3.63 billion. The deficit rose to $4.778 billion in 1941, near the end
of the Great Depression. Throughout these years, the governments financial loss
went up by $5.512 billion overall. I think that the rising deficit means that the
government funding programs did not stabilize the economy enough to bring that
deficit to a lower number.
Another reason for the failure of Roosevelts measures to overcome the Great
Depression was the elevated unemployment rate. This idea is supported in
Document 3 where the line graph displays unemployment rates throughout the
Great Depression. During 1925, the unemployment rate is around 3 percent and
rises to 17 percent near the end of the Great Depression in 1939. Even with the high
employment high unemployment rate in 1932 of 25 percent, the rate stays above
14 percent after that. The chart shows a visual of the great increase from the
beginning to the end of the Great Depression. This information tells me that
Roosevelts programs have not done enough in reducing the unemployment rate
greatly during this era.
The New Deal and the Roosevelt Administrations were not effective in
overcoming the Great Depression and rebuilding the U.S. economy. Through the
various readings, I saw how Roosevelts measures were not enough to extinguish

the depression over the U.S. and were insufficient in reviving the economy because
of the governments deficit spending and the nations substantial unemployment
rates.