Quote by Franklin D. Roosevelt
Is the United States going to decide, are the people of this country going to decide that their Federal Government shall in the future have no right under any implied power or any court-approved power to enter into a solution of a national economic problem, but that that national economic problem must be decided only by the States? We thought we were solving it, and now it has been thrown right straight in our faces. We have been relegated to the horse-and-buggy definition of interstate commerce.
Summary
The quote reflects frustration and disbelief regarding the limitations imposed on the Federal Government's power to address national economic issues. It questions whether the American people should decide if the Federal Government should have any authority, implied or court-approved, to intervene in solving national economic problems or if such decisions should be exclusively within the jurisdiction of individual states. The reference to the "horse-and-buggy definition of interstate commerce" implies a perception that the country is regressing rather than progressing in resolving economic challenges.