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Franklin D Roosevelt Signed Official 1941 Budget On the eve of War, Franklin D. Roosevelt Signs the

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Franklin D Roosevelt Signed Official 1941 Budget On the eve of War, Franklin D. Roosevelt Signs the
<B>On the eve of War, Franklin D. Roosevelt Signs the Official Printing of the Budget for the United States, <I>possibly unique, in private hands.</B></I></B></I> <I>The Budget of the United States Government For the Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1941.</B></I> (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1940). First edition, deluxe issue, 25 copies, the entire issue, all signed by FDR at the conclusion of his prefatory message which is printed on handmade paper (the balance of the text, over 1,000 pages of budgetary data, is printed on machine-made stock). All of that information, plus what follows, was mined in the files on the printing of the budgets at the FDR Library at Hyde Park. Between 1936 and 1944 (for fiscal years 1937 through 1945) FDR produced a deluxe signed issue of 25 copies of each budget, specially bound in green three-quarter morocco, for distribution to department heads and key Congressional allies. In addition, another 1000 were run off (with FDR's prefatory text printed on the same machine-stock as the budgetary data) and bound in paper wrappers for general distribution to members of Congress and their staff. <BR><BR>The prefatory message from FDR contains a clear statement of New Deal fiscal policy, and lays the groundwork for the massive military expenditures that would dominate the budget over the following years. Almost two years prior to Pearl Harbor, he was planning to use the same expansive, activist vision of Federal power for national defense that he had used to combat the Depression. "The substantial increase [in expenditures] in the past decade," he wrote, "is a reflection of the degree to which the country, in response to changing economic and international conditions and changing attitudes, has turned to the Government to meet social needs recognized by our citizenship. Nowhere are our democratic processes so faithfully depicted." He "tried to interpret the wishes of our people" when formulating the budget, and divined that "they want to strengthen our national defense and are prepared to pay additional taxes for this purpose." The $1.8 billion proposed for defense outstripped the next largest outlay-for work relief programs-by $500 million. <BR><BR>But Roosevelt still had to battle against the long-standing charge that his Administration was spending wildly, and his Message repeatedly promised to restore budgetary balance as soon as circumstances permitted. He was also trying to educate the public to see that debt could be a powerful instrument of public policy. "Those who state baldly that the Government's debt is 42 billion dollars-and stop there-are stating a deceptive half-truth calculated to make our people apprehensive." The rise in national income since 1933, he pointed out, was "far in excess" of the debts run up during those years. "The credit of the Federal Government has never been higher." Americans had to lose their automatic fear of red ink. The government's debt-like any debt-"cannot be judged in a vacuum." When used for constructive purposes, he argued, it could be a benefit rather than a burden. With this budget, Roosevelt took the first small step down the path towards Keynesian military spending. After Pearl Harbor, he would make the giant leap. 4to, three-quarter green morocco; all edges marbled; marbled endpapers; wear to extremities.