road map

Even while developing his New Deal measures in the Great Depression, President Roosevelt – in words later repeated by President Reagan – warned:

The lessons of history, confirmed by the evidence immediately before me, show conclusively that continued dependence upon relief induces a spiritual and moral disintegration fundamentally destructive to the national fiber. To dole out relief in this way is to administer a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit. . . . It is in violation of the traditions of America.
(from Road Map, by Congressman Paul Ryan)