Huey P. Long's criticism of the New Deal, particularly the National Recovery Administration (NRA), centers on the excessive and convoluted regulations it imposed on small businesses. He highlights the absurdity of a peanut stand facing criminal charges for minor infractions, stating that even the simplest operations required adherence to an extensive rule book with over 900 codes that were "as thick as an unabridged dictionary." This complexity rendered it nearly impossible for small business owners, like those running shoe-shine stands, to comply without incurring significant legal risks. Long's rhetoric underscores his belief that such regulations stifled entrepreneurship and disproportionately harmed small operators, suggesting that the New Deal's well-intentioned reforms became burdensome and detrimental rather than beneficial.
Use the excerpt from Huey P. Long's "Share Our Wealth" speech, given on March 12, 1935, to answer the question.
And they proceeded with the NRA. Everything from a peanut stand to a power house had to have a separate book of rules and laws to regulate what they did. If a peanut stand started to parch a sack of goobers for sale, they had to be careful to go through the rule book. One slip and he went to jail. A little fellow who pressed a pair of pants went to jail because he charged 5 cents under the price set in the rule book. So they wrote their NRA rule book, codes, laws, etc. They got up over 900 of them. One would be as thick as an unabridged dictionary and as confusing as a study of the stars. It would take 40 lawyers to tell a shoe-shine stand how to operate and be certain he didn't go to jail.
In 3-5 sentences, analyze Huey Long's criticism of the New Deal. Cite specific details in the excerpt to support your analysis./
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