Blog 3918 – 08.15.2026

Time For A New Deal

P.T. Barnum the Great Showman, the Great Con-Man, expressed his philosophy in a nut shell, “A sucker is born every minute.” He thought that a true businessman should never give a sucker and even break. In 1932 unchecked Capitalism had just about ruined this nation and the entire world by causing The Great Depression. Franklin Delano Roosevelt believed that the people needed a New Deal. The cards had been stacked against them. What had been founded as a government of the people, by the people, and for the people had become instead a government of the rich, by the rich and for the rich.

Roosevelt tried a lot of programs to help poor people, one of the most successful that has been looted and attacked by the wealthy ever since is the Social Security Program. The only safety net for the elderly, disabled, or children of deceased bread winners in the days before Social Security was the charity of their children or charitable organizations that tried to help the homeless and penniless. People who worked hard all their lives feared “the poor house” would be their fate.

FDR’s New Deal and especially social safety net programs like Social Security changed that for millions of Americans and I am one. I recently read of a bipartisan proposal to save Social Security by removing the cap on Social Security payroll deductions. Only one year in my entire working career did my gross income ever exceed the maximum amount taxable for Social Security. The rate was immediately raised so that never happened again. The one per cent who control 99 per cent of the wealth in this nation are not paying their fair share into Social Security nor in many cases paying any income tax at all. Last year’s supposedly Big Beautiful Bill was tax cuts for the rich who are the true “welfare recipients” that are breaking the system. Our first trillionaire who claims to be a genius and great businessman has made his fortune on government contracts. 

Elon Musk’s Department Of Government Efficiency promised to save the government 2 Trillion dollars in one year with their draconian cuts of programs and layoffs of hundreds of government employees. They ended up claiming only 310 billion in savings most of which cannot be documented nor can the loss of critical services and experience and the expertise of so many long time government employees. DOGE illegally seized Social Security records as well. To what end? Not to save the Social Security program you can be sure.

What record of accomplishment will still be celebrated in ninety-one years that Donald Trump or Elon Musk have accomplished for the people? Capitalists build monuments to greed and the amassing of great wealth. Truly great men and women measure their success by what they have accomplished for others. We need fewer people getting rich off the government and more who believe and practice that good government is of the people, by the people, and for the people. President Franklin D. Roosevelt who got more votes than any other President before or since believed it was time for a New Deal in his day. Perhaps it is time for a reshuffling of the cards, A New Deal.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David James White