The Presidential Veto - 1921 - 1929 — Parks, Presidents and Parks

The Roaring Twenties was an era of economic growth and cultural change in the United States. The country became majority urban for the first time. Radios become widespread. Prohibition was enforced and widely ignored. And what were our Presidents veto activities during this time?

Warren Harding (1921 – 1923)

Harding was elected with over 60% of the popular vote, the 4th largest margin in our history. Republicans won their biggest majority in the House of Representatives in the 20th century, picking up over 60 seats, giving them over 300 seats (out of 435). The Republican landslide carried over to the Senate, where Republicans won 10 seats to hold a veto-proof majority in the Senate.

With the President and legislature of the same party, both elected by large majorities, you would expect vetoes to be limited. And Harding only vetoed six bills in his two-and-a-half-years of service. This was the smallest total of vetoes since the mid-1800s. Which President has the fewest since then? President Trump, with 10 vetoes.

Two military compensation bills were the subject of Harding's veto pen. One provided a bonus for veterans of the recently completed World War (not yet called World War I) The second related to pensions for Veterans of the Civil War.

Congress passed a bill granting WWI veterans a bonus ranging from $1.00 to $1.25 per day of service. The payment was deferred until 1945, although veterans would earn interest until receipt of the money, which would approximately double the actual payout.

Harding vetoed the bill. The reason will amaze you.

His veto message: "With the avowed purpose of the bill to give expression of a nation's gratitude to those who served in its defense in the World War, I am in accord." Ok, so why the veto? Harding continues: "In legislating for what is called adjusted compensation, Congress fails…to provide the revenue from which the bestowal is to be paid." In other words, Congress is planning to spend money without a way to pay for it. What a unique concept! If you are going to expend money, you need a source for the money.

Harding had informed Congress in advance of his concern: "When the bill was under consideration in the House I expressed the conviction that any grant of bonus ought to provide the means of paying [for] it" He points out it is easier to say yes than no: "We have been driving in every direction to curtail our expenditures and establish economies without impairing the essentials of governmental activities. It has been a difficult and unpopular task. It is vastly more applauded to expend than to deny." (emphasis added).

I wonder what the effect would be on the government today if every expenditure needed to be paid for?

Although the House overrode Harding's veto, the Senate fell a few votes short.

The second military compensation bill vetoed by Harding was entitled "An Act Granting Pensions to Certain Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines of the Civil War." Congress passed this bill in 1923, almost 60 years after the end of the Civil War. Veterans of that war, their widows and dependents, already received pensions. This bill extended pensions to widows who married a Civil War veteran years after that soldier's service. As he stated: "Frankly, I do not recognize any public obligation to pension women who now, nearly 60 years after the Civil War, became the wives of veterans of that war." In other words, a twenty-year-old woman could marry an 80-year old Civil War veteran in 1920 and then claim a pension for the rest of her life. Harding stated that the bill provided higher pensions to Civil War widows than to widows of the recently completed World War: "The compensation paid to the widows of World War veterans, those who shared the shock and sorrows of the conflict, amounts to $24 per month. It would be indefensible to insist on that limitation upon actual war widows [of the recent war] if we are to pay $50 per month to widows who marry veterans 60 years after the Civil War."

Harding died in office in 1923. Vice President Coolidge became President and then won the 1924 Presidential Election.

Calvin Coolidge (1923 – 1929)

Congress still wanted a World War I veterans bonus bill. In 1924 the legislature passed a bill similar to the one Harding vetoed. Coolidge also rejected the bill.

As with Harding, Coolidge's reason is quite logical. He says there is no such thing as a free lunch; if the government spends money to benefit one group, it must come from somewhere, namely, everyone else. "We have no money to bestow upon a class of people that is not taken from the whole people. Our first concern must be the nation as a whole. This outweighs in its importance the consideration of a class, and the latter must yield to the former."

Coolidge wants to reduce taxes, not raise spending: "The prosperity of the nation, which is the prosperity of the people, rests primarily on reducing the existing tax burden… All of this enormous sum has to be earned by the people of this country through their toil. It is taken from the returns of their production. They must earn it; they must pay it."

This time Congress overrode the Presidential veto and the World War I veteran bonus became law.

Congress also wanted to increase pensions to Northern Civil War veterans and their widows in a similar manner as the bill Harding vetoed. Coolidge vetoed the measure pointing out that Civil War veterans and their widows already receive pensions. Again, Coolidge was concerned about the burden on the taxpayer: "No conditions exist which justify the imposition of this additional burden upon the taxpayers of the nation. All our pensions were revised, and many liberal increases were made no longer ago than 1920. Every survivor of the Civil War draws $50 per month, and those in need of regular aid and attendance, which already includes 41,000 of them, draw $72 per month." The legislation even granted Civil War pensions to soldiers who enlisted in the 18 months after the end of the war: "The act also proposes to extend the limits of the war period from April 13, 1865, to August 20, 1866, so that those who enlisted during this year and four months of peace now become eligible for the same treatment as those who fought through the war."

Coolidge says the cost is high: "It proposes to add more than 25 percent to the cost of the pension roll. It is estimated that it would bring the total pension bill of the country to a point higher than ever before reached, notwithstanding it is now nearly 60 years since the close of the Civil War… The burden on the taxpayers must not be increased; it must be decreased."

Congress passed this Civil War bill twice, once in 1924 and again in 1927. Each time the Senate barely sustained Coolidge's veto.

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Both Harding and Coolidge were concerned with protecting the taxpayer's wallets against what they considered excessive spending. Not a trait on display recently.

(to be continued)