Editor's note: Every Sunday, Fortune publishes a favorite story from our magazine archives. This week, as congressional leaders and the Obama Administration continue with fiscal cliff negotiations, we turn to a feature from December 1934 on the ballooning federal budget during the New Deal era.
The $14,000,000,000 that the President has been given to spend, the national debtthat will shortly be $32,000,000,000, and our present two-year predicted deficit of $9,295,000,000. Should we worry?FORTUNE MORE