https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm-plus/franklin-d-roosevelts-terrible-legacy/
In his first inaugural address on March 4, 1933, the architect of the New Deal, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, declared that fear was all that Americans should fear. He also attempted to lower expectations for an economic recovery by trying to convince the nation that material prosperity wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. “Happiness,” he declared sonorously, “lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.” He continued, “The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits….” He called on Americans to recognize “the falsity of material wealth as the standard of success.”
During his 1936 reelection campaign, Roosevelt reiterated his determination to redistribute wealth, adapting the Marxist slogan “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs” in saying: “Here is my principle: Taxes shall be levied according to ability to pay. That is the only American principle.”
As was so often the case with Roosevelt, this sounded better than it was. A graduated income tax has been in place in America for many years, but that doesn’t negate the fact that penalizing wealthier Americans by forcing them to pay higher taxes only decreases their ability and reduces their incentive to maintain businesses that provide jobs for ordinary citizens. A genuine “American principle” would be to tax everyone equally, which would naturally result in the wealthy paying more anyway.
As the Great Depression dragged on, perhaps there were some Americans who comforted themselves with the realization that they were not corrupted by “the falsity of material wealth.” They had scant other comfort. In May 1939, halfway through Roosevelt’s lengthy presidency, Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau went before the House Ways and Means Committee and frankly admitted that the New Deal had been an abject failure.