Senate's stimulus bill is nothing like Roosevelt's New Deal

By Mary Lynne Vellinga | Sacramento Bee

The last time the government came riding to the economy's rescue in a massive way, it paid for much more than building roads, sidewalks and bridges, although it certainly did plenty of that.

In the 1930s, an alphabet soup of federal agencies funded an array of programs to boost the economic well-being and psyche of the beleaguered U.S. population.