[ 595 ] U.S. History GED ® TEST SOCIAL STUDIES FLASH REVIEW • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Which is the best conclusion that can be drawn from the information below? “Economic depression cannot be cured by legislative action or executive pronouncement. Economic wounds must be healed by the action of the cells of the economic body—the producers and consumers themselves. . . . The best contribution of government lies in encouragement of this voluntary cooperation in the community. The government—national, state, and local—can join with the community in such programs and do its part.” —President Herbert Hoover, Annual Message to the Congress on the State of the Union, Dec. 2, 1930 United States Government Finances, 1929–1941 (in Billions of Dollars) Fiscal Year Expenditures Surplus or Deficit Total Public Debt 1929 $3.127 $0.734 $16.9 1930 3.320 0.738 16.2 1931 3.577 –0.462 16.8 1932 4.659 –2.735 19.5 1933 4.598 –2.602 22.5 1934 6.645 –3.630 27.1 1935 6.497 –2.791 28.7 1936 8.422 –4.425 33.8 1937 7.733 –2.777 36.4 1938 6.765 –1.177 37.2 1939 8.841 –3.862 40.4 1940 9.589 –2.710 43.0 1941 13.980 –4.778 44.0 a. Deficit spending contributed to increasing public debt in the 1930s. b. The federal government should not be allowed to have deficit spending. c. The public debt grew despite annual surpluses in the government’s treasury. d. The downward economic spiral was resolved only through significant expenditures of the federal government.