Here’s one example:
"In addition to financial deregulation, notes historian Jeffrey Hummel, Van Buren “thwarted all attempts to use economic depression as an excuse for expanding government ‘s role Henry Clay and the Whigs (including a young Abraham Lincoln) viewed the depression as a political opportunity to get the federal government to enact their favorite pork-barrel schemes for “internal improvements,”…He also defeated the Whigs’ attempts to get the federal government to bailout the states, many of which had unwisely pursued Clay’s policy of issuing massive amounts of debt from “internal improvements” In fact, total federal government expenditures fell in absolute dollar terms during Van Buren’s term…” “How Capitalism Saved America” pg 159
Pretty much a mirror contrast to today. Just sad…