Budget: Herbert Hoover Increased Spending, Deficits

Harold Meyerson falsely claimed that President Herbert Hoover “cut spending” to balance the budget during the Great Depression. In reality, Hoover actually increased federal spending from $3.1 billion in 1929, when he took office, to $4.6 billion in 1933, when he left office. Hoover also ran up big budget deficits.
While Hoover’s administration had inherited a $734 million budget surplus, it quickly turned that into a deficit, which reached $2.7 billion in 1932, and $2.6 billion in 1933. Government spending doubled as a percentage of the economy, which shrank rapidly.
For more on this, see The Atlantic article, “Hoover Was No Budget Cutter.”