Roosevelt was the most popular and important Democratic president…until Clinton came along.

He was elected a whopping four times, drawing comparisons to Roman dictator Julius Caesar from his critics. (Source)

Roosevelt practically invented federal bureaucracy during the Great Depression. When he first accepted his party's nomination for the presidency, he delivered a speech with the promise of "a new deal for the American people." (Source)

The New Deal was essentially a strategy to use government spending to help lift the pressures of the Great Depression from the shoulders of the American people. Drawing on the economic principles of John Maynard Keynes (Source), Roosevelt figured that things were so bad in the economy (and they were) that the government ought to intervene to help people find work and start saving money again. At the time, he was accused of favoring socialism.

Later on, Reagan and Republicans would lead a contrary ideological movement based on the economics of Milton Friedman, a conservative economist who favored limited government spending.

So: what do you think? Should the government spend money (you know, taxpayer money) to create programs, or stay in the corner like a boxing coach?