The New Deal and Political Change

• In 1938, Republican seats in the House of Representatives doubled
• No New Deal measures were passed after January 1939
• Roosevelt's Revenue Act was weakened by Congress when they removed the proposed tax on company profits
• People wanted less government involvement and Roosevelt had become more radical than his politicians
• Roosevelt supported more liberal Democrat candidates in the 1938 mid-term elections to try to purge his party of conservatives. He failed
• Roosevelt planned to expand the White House staff by creating the Executive Office of the President. The House of Representatives rejected the idea in April 1938 204-196
• Roosevelt resorted to creating the Executive Office by Executive Order in September 1939 in defiance of Congress
• In the August 1938 Gallup Poll, 50% of Americans feared the development of a US dictatorship