Truman 21-Point Program Defeated, Corporate Backlash Against New Deal Begins

President Harry Truman delivers a special message to Congress on September 6, 1945, presenting an ambitious 21-point program for postwar America that includes full employment legislation, minimum wage increases, national health insurance, expanded Social Security, and permanent Fair Employment Practices Committee legislation. Over the following two years, business interests and the conservative coalition in Congress defeat or gut nearly every major proposal.

Truman’s program represents the most comprehensive expansion of the New Deal ever proposed. It includes: substantial increases to minimum wage and unemployment compensation; extension of price controls to prevent postwar inflation; a permanent FEPC to prohibit employment discrimination; national health insurance; expanded public housing; and a Full Employment Bill guaranteeing jobs for all who seek them.

The National Association of Manufacturers and U.S. Chamber of Commerce immediately mobilize against the program, characterizing it as creeping socialism. They fund advertising campaigns, supply speakers to civic organizations, and coordinate congressional lobbying. Business groups distribute millions of pamphlets warning that the program will lead to government control of the economy.

The conservative coalition, an alliance of Republicans and Southern Democrats that had blocked New Deal expansion since 1937, systematically kills or weakens Truman’s proposals. The Full Employment Bill becomes the gutted Employment Act of 1946. National health insurance dies in committee. The permanent FEPC never passes. Minimum wage increases are delayed and reduced.

The defeat of the 21-Point Program marks a decisive turning point. Corporate America, emboldened by the conservative coalition’s success, moves from defensive opposition to aggressive rollback. The same forces that block Truman’s expansion proceed to attack existing labor rights, culminating in Taft-Hartley in 1947. The postwar moment of possibility, when expanded social democracy seemed achievable, closes as corporate power reasserts dominance over the political agenda.