Franklin Delano Roosevelt was born on January 30th, 1882. He was raised by his wealthy family in the state of New York. Growing up he was educated by private tutors and attended Groton college preparatory school before studying at Harvard. He married his distant cousin Anna Eleanor Roosevelt the niece of Theodore Roosevelt in the year of 1905. Later he attended Columbia University to further his education by studying law. It was not until 1910 that he became a politician by winning his race for a senatorial seat in Congress as a Democrat. Later, in 1913 Roosevelt was appointed to the position of assistant secretary of the U.S. Navy by President Woodrow Wilson. “In the summer of 1921, when he was 39, disaster hit-he was stricken with poliomyelitis.” …show more content…
The GDP grew about 11 percent annually after 1937-38.” With Roosevelt’s New Deal acts and corporations he was able to improve the economy of the nation. He created jobs for the people and put money into the Americans’ pockets. Having money to spend Americans started building back the economy from where it was by taking the money that they were earning and spending it. The improvements displayed across the nation secured President Roosevelt’s reelection in 1936. After his reelection he tried to increase the size of the Supreme Court with his “court packing” plan in belief that he would be greatly supported. Roosevelt was not successful in his attempt to increase the size of the Supreme Court but afterwards the Government became able to legally regulate the economy. But, “A cutback in New Deal spending in 1938 resulted in an economic contraction. The economy expanded again in 1939 as spending increased.” There were ups and downs throughout President Roosevelts time in office. Not everything was working out how he wished and wanted it to and entering into World War II did not help the national debt. “The debt rose from $43 billion in 1940 to $258.7 billion in 1945. The unemployment rate fell to 1.2 percent in 1944. The national debt was fully 121 percent of GDP, compared with an estimated 95 percent today.” In 1940 Franklin D. Roosevelt ran for the Presidential election a third a time and surpassed his opponent Wendell L. Wilkie by almost 5 million votes. This was the first and only time in American history that a President was elected for three consecutive terms and he later was elected for a fourth term but did not live to serve his fourth term. President Roosevelt gave support to the British and the French going into World War II. He showed an increase in his support towards Great Britain by passing the Lend-Lease Act in March of 1941 that allowed the allies of the U.S. to gain materials