Honors History Blog #1: Presidential Advising

Dear President Obama,

The recession is definitely overwhelming, and I completely understand your struggle as you try to keep the peace among the people. But allow me to facilitate this daunting task. Why not take a step back to your history class and think about how Franklin Delano Roosevelt handled things when America’s economy tanked back in the 30’s?

There are some things that you’re doing that are very beneficial, like extending the unemployment benefits to more people and allowing those who are unemployed to collect a small amount of money while they look for a job. This is very similar to what FDR did in his first term. The way that you are trying to find a way out by putting aside the petty labels of ‘liberal’ and ‘conservative’ could prove to be very rewarding as well. One suggestion I will offer is to continue to stay unbiased in your approach to writing an economic proposal for our country. Keeping a neutral outlook on the situation will go a long way in doing what’s right for everyone

One of the things FDR did to appease the public was create agencies like the FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation). This organization, as you surely know, keeps peoples’ money safe if anything like the Great Depression ever happens again. Founding such an organization certainly went a long way to keeping people from rioting in the streets over their lost bank accounts. Now I know that starting any large foundation like that is very difficult in our current state, but one possible thing for you to do could be to review the policies of the FDIC and other organizations like it and adjust them to meet the needs of our current society.

Social security was one thing that FDR implemented that could be tweaked a tad. You seem to be doing a great job of supplying people with enough social security money to last, but it has to be improved. People can’t just keep getting a hand-out or no one will ever go back to a real job. Certainly they need some help, but for my final suggestion I advise that you put more money into finding a way out of the recession instead of padding peoples’ pockets. A little bit is fine, definitely, but there needs to be a limit. FDR didn’t throw money at people when the times got tough—he used what money he could to establish order and stabilize the nation.

I don’t expect you to take my ideas as the word of the Lord or anything, but as your advisor I feel it is my place to do the very thing I am named for: advise. I hope you will take my ideas into consideration and that I have been of some help.

Thank you.

Sincerely

-Kyle Bray, Presidential Advisor.

Sources:

"The New Yorker" New Liberalism, George Packer; November 17th 2008

http://www.teachablemoment.org/high/fdr-bho.html, Leading the Nation through Hard Times