Why might president hoover have been opposed to the government trying to fix the broken economy?

He wasn't--and in fact instituted a number of federal initiatives. However, Hoover's career and training were in the older ideas about economics. That view held that restricting government spending and allowing local/state institutions, along with private groups, to handle the problems, was the best approach. 

Nor was he entirely wrong. What Hoover didn't realize is that in an industrial economy--and in a major economic dislocation--those smaller institutions simply didn't have the resources needed to deal with problems on the scale that beset the country. 

That was the contribution fo the new "Keynesian economics" which more realistically viewed the role oof the national government as being integral to economic recovery and growth. Unfortunately, what Keynes said (e.g. limited --and short-term--deficit spending to "prime the pump" of the economy) and what later politicians did, were two different things. Keynes was specific that such deficits and intervention should be temporary--overall the government should maintain balanced budgets and limit intervention. 

It was the possibility of such abuse by later politicians that was at the root of Hoover's reluctance to take a more interventionist role--and the general thinking of prior economists who argued the government should steer clear of economic affairs.

Source: https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070628042923AAujpH3

Idon't understand ur ?