The Limits of Symbolic Reform: The New Deal and Taxation, 19331939In The Limits of Symbolic Reform, Mark Leff examines the gap between politics and economics, between symbol and substance in the New Deal. The New Deal never lacked for controversy, and tax policy reliably aroused the fiercest of emotions. Franklin Roosevelt's celebrated tax reform proposals - presented amidst verbal barrages against 'economic royalists' and the 'unjust concentration of wealth and economic power' - signified almost nothing in terms of revenue. Cosmetic higher rates on upper-income brackets generated far less revenue than lower-profile New Deal taxes on agricultural products, liquor, and payrolls (through social security) that burdened low incomes. But while 'soak the rich' tax initiatives were economically inconsequential, they were politically crucial to the image of compassion and action projected by the New Deal. Leff's analysis clarifies the reform priorities and the balance of political and economic that produced this paradoxical New Deal tax machinery. |
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Contents
| 1 | |
| 9 | |
| 11 | |
| 48 | |
| 91 | |
The Paradox of Symbolic Reform Enacting a Wealth Tax without Sharing the Wealth | 93 |
Before the Fall New Deal Tax Reform 19361937 | 169 |
New Deal Taxation under Siege 19371939 | 203 |
The Recession Cometh | 205 |
New Deal Taxation and the Business Community 19371939 | 231 |
The Unkindest Cuts of All Tax Legislation in 1938 and 1939 | 255 |
Taxation Symbolic Politics and the New Deal Legacy | 287 |
Index | 294 |
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The Limits of Symbolic Reform: The New Deal and Taxation, 19331939 Mark H. Leff No preview available - 1984 |
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1st sess 74th Cong Addresses administration allowed amendment American argument bill brackets budget burden businessmen campaign capital collections Commerce Committee Cong Congress Congressional Record conservative consumer corporate Deal Deal tax Democratic economic effect efforts excise taxes exemption fact FDR's February federal Finance folder Follette forces Franklin higher Historical House important income tax income-tax increase industry investment issue January July June leaders legislation less levies liberal Library limited Long lower major March Means middle million Morgenthau Diaries opposition percent political popular position president Press processing profits progressive proposal question rates received recovery redistribution reform repeal reported Republican response Revenue Act revision rhetoric rich Robert Roosevelt salaries sales tax seemed Senate share social security symbolic tax system taxation Treasury undistributed-profits tax University vote Washington wealth World York
Popular passages
Page 55 - If excessive, they are reflected in idle factories, tax-sold farms, and, hence, in hordes of the hungry tramping the streets and seeking jobs in vain. " Our workers may never see a tax bill, but they pay in deductions from wages, in increased cost of what they buy, or (as now) in broad cessation of employment.
Page 137 - Our revenue laws have operated in many ways to the unfair advantage of the few, and they have done little to prevent an unjust concentration of wealth and economic power.
Page 149 - it may be necessary to throw to the wolves the forty-six men who are reported to have incomes in excess of one million dollars a year. This can be accomplished through taxation.
Page 149 - Frances Fox Piven and Richard A. Cloward, Regulating the Poor (New York: Random House, 1971); G0sta Esping-Andersen, The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1990). 15. Goodin, Reasons for Welfare. 16. Edward V. Sparer, "The Right to Welfare," in The Rights of Americans: What They Are— What They Should Be, ed.
Page 17 - Second, it seems a little absurd to go around arguing that poor people could or ought to do without tobacco, especially if it is taxed, in the face of the facts that they simply do not do anything of the kind, that the commodity was selected for taxation because they are not expected to do so, and that the government would not get much revenue if they did. The plain fact, to one not confused by moralistic distinctions between necessities and luxuries, is simply that taxes like the tobacco taxes are...
Page 165 - Americans must forswear that conception of acquisition of wealth which through excessive profits creates undue private power over private affairs, and to our misfortune over public affairs as well.
Page 287 - Forecasting and Recognizing Business Cycle Turning Points (New York: Columbia University Press for the National Bureau of Economic Research, 1968) . 14. Frazer, William J., Jr., "Monetary Policy, Monetary Operations and National Economic Goals.
Page 55 - Taxes are paid in the sweat of every man who labors because they are a burden on production and can be paid only by production.
Bibliographic information
| Title | The Limits of Symbolic Reform: The New Deal and Taxation, 19331939 |
| Authors | Mark H. Leff, Mark Hugh Leff |
| Edition | illustrated, reprint, revised |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press, 1984 |
| ISBN | 0521521246, 9780521521246 |
| Length | 308 pages |
| Subjects | › › History / Americas (North, Central, South, West Indies) History / United States / General |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |