Some liken President Biden to FDR, perhaps he’s more like Ike. The Democrats in the U.S. House are working on reaching consensus to pass Biden’s Infrastructure-Investment bill, likened to the compassionate, optimistic & hard-practicality of FDR’s New Deal, from which many essential Infrastructure projects & life-changing welfare-programs emerged. Others compare Biden to President Dwight D. Eisenhower, nicknamed ‘Ike’, former general, commander of Allied Armed Forces, elected president in 1953; he signed the 1957 Civil-Rights Act & created the Interstate-highway-system. Although ‘Ike’ was a military man, he warned Americans against allowing the “military industrial complex, a permanent armaments-industry of vast proportions, to have an unwarranted influence in the halls of government”. That “complex” greatly expanded after 9/11/2001.
Eisenhower gave his “Chance for Peace” speech 4/16/1953, broadcast by TV & radio, “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world is not spending MONEY alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is 2 electric power-plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is 2 fine, fully-equipped hospitals. It is some 50 miles of concrete pavement. We pay for a single fighter with a half-million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people. This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.”
Eisenhower’s 1961,”Farewell Speech”, bookends the first, “There is a reoccurring temptation to feel that some spectacular & costly action could become the miraculous solution to all current difficulties; but each proposal must be weighed in light of a broader consideration: the need to maintain balance in & among national programs — a balance between actions of the moment & the national welfare of the future. We must avoid the impulse only for today, plundering, for our own ease & convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political & spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.”
A responsible government makes hard choices. Fortify Democracy!
Trish Forsyth Voss
Sep 20 2021
Is Biden like IKE or FDR?
Some liken President Biden to FDR, perhaps he’s more like Ike. The Democrats in the U.S. House are working on reaching consensus to pass Biden’s Infrastructure-Investment bill, likened to the compassionate, optimistic & hard-practicality of FDR’s New Deal, from which many essential Infrastructure projects & life-changing welfare-programs emerged. Others compare Biden to President Dwight D. Eisenhower, nicknamed ‘Ike’, former general, commander of Allied Armed Forces, elected president in 1953; he signed the 1957 Civil-Rights Act & created the Interstate-highway-system. Although ‘Ike’ was a military man, he warned Americans against allowing the “military industrial complex, a permanent armaments-industry of vast proportions, to have an unwarranted influence in the halls of government”. That “complex” greatly expanded after 9/11/2001.
Eisenhower gave his “Chance for Peace” speech 4/16/1953, broadcast by TV & radio, “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world is not spending MONEY alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is 2 electric power-plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is 2 fine, fully-equipped hospitals. It is some 50 miles of concrete pavement. We pay for a single fighter with a half-million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people. This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.”
Eisenhower’s 1961,”Farewell Speech”, bookends the first, “There is a reoccurring temptation to feel that some spectacular & costly action could become the miraculous solution to all current difficulties; but each proposal must be weighed in light of a broader consideration: the need to maintain balance in & among national programs — a balance between actions of the moment & the national welfare of the future. We must avoid the impulse only for today, plundering, for our own ease & convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political & spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.”
A responsible government makes hard choices. Fortify Democracy!
Trish Forsyth Voss
By spiritspeak • Uncategorized 0