Author: Randall Reeder

Will offers his view of the economic situation

COLUMBUS: Washington had good news this week for folks that like to spend and spend and put it on their credit cards. If you get behind and miss a payment or two, it won’t matter. The other card holders will carry you.

Secretary Geithner wants to put a cap on bankers’ salaries. When a man is borrowing half of all the money he’s spending, he probably shouldn’t rile the bankers. On the other hand it seems like a good idea; I’ve sure told my share of jokes on the bankers. And suppose they take this salary cap all the way to Hollywood. Whether Barbara Streisand or Tom Hanks could get by on $500,000 a year, I got my doubts.

A bunch of Chrysler dealers are being shut down. General Motors is closing a bunch more. I’m partial to Ford, but this ought to be a good time to buy a new Chrysler, and maybe a Pontiac. These dealers only have a month or two to get rid of the cars, so they’re dealing. Besides, with this new announcement from Washington you can put the full cost on your credit cards and maybe spread the payments over ten or twelve years.

This whole situation defies logic. If you want to sell more cars, give your customers fewer places to buy ‘em? But entice them with easy payments that can last way longer than the car.

Keeping Islamic terrorists at Guantanamo is looking like a better deal. Europe complained about the prison for years, but when European countries were offered a chance to take a few of the prisoners off our hands, they turned us down flat. When it comes to war, Europeans are good talkers.

If we’re forced to take those terrorists into one of our 50 states, I propose Nevada. I don’t have anything against Nevada; it’s a great state for gamblers, divorcees and wild horses. There’s no place lovelier than Lake Tahoe. But we have spent $10 Billion in Nevada, mainly tunneling out a huge storage space under Yucca Mountain for nuclear materials. Senator Reid says he will never accept a single pound of nuclear material, so I would propose a deal. Either give us back the $10 Billion, or take the prisoners.

It’s the cheapest place to store these terrorists. Build a steel gate across the entrance and put them in there. Once a week bring in a truck with plenty of food and water. Let ‘em take care of each other. No guards inside. Or lawyers either. Yucca Mountain was designed to hold nuclear waste for millions of years; it can easily hold these Gitmo prisoners for a hundred.

On our money problems,  we’re always saying this high debt will be tough on our children and grandchildren. But the way it’s going lately, it’s us, too. With this spending drunk we’re on, it won’t wait for us old folks to die off naturally. What inflation doesn’t take from us, higher taxes will.

Now I’ve always been an optimist. But it’s getting tougher when our leaders in Washington tell us the whole country ought to be like California.

Historic quotes from Will Rogers:

“Why don’t somebody print the truth about our present economic situation? We spent six years of wild buying on credit (everything under the sun, whether we needed it or not) and now we are having to pay for ‘em under Mr. Hoover, and we are howling like a pet coon.
This would be a great world to dance in if we didn’t have to pay the fiddler.” DT #1224, June 27, 1930

 “If you got a dollar, soak it away, put it in a savings bank, bury it, do anything but spend it. Spending when we didn’t have it put us where we are today. Saving when we’ve got it will get us back to where we was before we went cuckoo.” DT #1353, Nov. 24, 1930

A new speech for Speaker Pelosi

COLUMBUS: President Obama had a tough week. He’s trying to solve health care, global warming, and bankrupt car companies, and all the country wanted to talk about was abortion, taxes and Nancy Pelosi.

He announced that letting the military conduct the trials for the Gitmo terrorists ain’t such a bad idea after all. He’s working on Pakistan and Afghanistan to convince them to wipe out the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. This week he may decide to let Israel represent us in dealing with Iran. Some of his old supporters say he deserted them, changed his theme from “Yes We Can” to “Four More Years.” He’s trying to pick out a Supreme Court judge to win ‘em back.

President Obama decided not to release the pictures that might embarrass the military.  Now all we gotta do is get Hollywood to stop releasing pictures that embarrass the country.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi is in a jam. She’s had a horrible week trying to explain her recollection of top secret meetings with the CIA.  So far she’s failed. So in the interest of peace in Washington, I’ve prepared the following speech for her to give to the nation tomorrow.

(Speaker Pelosi) “Here’s the honest truth.  The reason I don’t remember any details about those meetings is this: I slept through them. Nobody noticed because my eyes were wide open and I was smiling. My eyes and mouth are welded in this position. I apologize to the CIA and to the country. I finally learned how to stay awake during boring meetings and speeches: every minute or so I jump up and applaud. You may remember I practiced that in January during the President’s address to Congress. I ask your forgiveness.”

On Sunday President Obama gave a speech at Notre Dame and got an honorary degree. The University invited him in a shrewd attempt to draw attention away from football. They aren’t winning like they used to with Knute Rockne. There were a few protestors, but mostly the students and faculty liked him because 90 percent voted for him. Kinda like that Washington press corps dinner last week.

Our astronauts fixed up Hubble, made it better than the original and fit for another five or ten years. If every car dealer in the country had a shop crew that skilled, we wouldn’t need any new ones. In fact many of them do, and that’s one reason they ain’t selling as many cars.

In the Preakness horse race Mine That Bird beat all the colts, but got knocked out by a filly. Rachel Alexandra is the Babe Didrikson Zaharias of horse racing.

Historic quotes from Will Rogers:

“…this Texas wildcat Babe Didrikson believes that she can do anything, and the funny part about it is she can. There is none of the sports that she can’t do and do well. She is an athletic marvel… This old Texas girl said she would ride, rope, or play polo against me, and I bet she could beat me in any one of ‘em.” WA #502, Aug. 7, 1932

“Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida, wants to give me (an honorary) degree. Now what in the world would I be doing with a degree? A lot of guys that earned ‘em don’t know what to do with ‘em, much less me that wouldn’t know what one was.” WA #621, Nov. 18, 1934

Weekly Comments: Money-saving advice backfires in Washington

COLUMBUS: Remember a couple of weeks ago I suggested the President could save some tax money by staying home rather than flying everywhere on Air Force One. Well, the next day he stayed in Washington, and Air Force One went to New York without him, costing us $330,000. I also hinted at how much Speaker Pelosi could save if she didn’t fly on an Air Force plane to San Francisco every weekend. Would you believe it, this weekend instead of California she flew to Iraq.
Folks, I meant well, but that just shows you a fellow offering free advice to the government has to be absolutely clear to get the desired results. I thought I wrote in plain English, but I guess not. Instead of saving, those two little episodes cost you over a million dollars.
From now on, before I send any money-saving tips to Washington, I’ll hire an accountant and a lawyer. As kind of a dry run, I sent a draft of this commentary to my accountant. She replied, “The New York flight cost $328,835. Plus 29 cents to print the digital photo.”
So you’re already better off by $1164.71. But if I get around to engaging an attorney, we’ll be back in the hole again.
Last week President Obama said that he was slashing his previously announced $3.4 Trillion budget. Because of the tough financial condition of the country, he had assembled all his top economists and ordered them to report all unnecessary or frivolous government expenses. They did, and it adds up to $17 Billion to be cut. That leaves only $3,383,000,000,000 to run the country. Then Congress got wind of it, and said, “You cut the wrong $17 Billion.”
Now if that wasn’t enough comedy, Saturday night the President entertained the Washington press corps at their annual dinner. The gather every year to raise money for charity and grade the president on his humor. They raised a lot of funds, and it’s a good thing because among the neediest people next year will be unemployed Washington journalists. President Obama was quite funny, actually a whole funnier than the comedian hired to follow him. Of course, he had better writers, and more of them, than she did. While she tried to get laughs by comparing Rush Limbaugh to Osama Bin Ladin, the President compared Dick Cheney to Dale Carnegie, saying that Dick was writing a book, “How to shoot friends and interrogate enemies.” You can’t go wrong joking about Vice Presidents.

Historic quotes from Will Rogers:

“With the politicians horning in, our comedian business is overcrowded.” WA #524, Jan. 8, 1933
“Where other Vice Presidents have done nothing but make speeches, Jack Garner just fishes. If all politicians fished instead of speaking publicly we would be at peace with the world.” DT #2251, Oct 20, 1933

Weekly Comments: Will is Whole Hog against Swine Flu

COLUMBUS: Today, I’m standing tall on my soap box, espousing total and unending support for a downtrodden minority: swine.

Over the last hundred years we’ve had the Spanish flu, Asian flu and Hong Kong flu. And now along comes another flu that started in Mexico. So they named it Swine flu. Whoa, why not Mexican flu, or Cancun flu? It just don’t seem fair to innocent hogs.

For these people with swine flu across the country and in different countries, they had all been in Mexico, and not a one of them caught it from a hog. Odds of a hog getting the virus from a man are way better than vice versa. In fact in Canada, a worker on a hog farm returned from Mexico and infected the hogs. But good news, they called in a Veterinarian who treated ’em all, including the man, and they are doing fine.

Some folks suggested the President should close the Mexican border. What a joke! They can’t keep out tons of cocaine, illegal immigrants and kidnappers; what chance do they have against a flu virus. Those clamoring for a closed border aren’t quite clear whether it’s to keep out pigs or people.

The only humanitarian reason for not calling it Mexican flu is more Mexicans vote in our elections than hog farmers. Near as I can tell, everyone’s calling it Swine flu – the federal government, television, newspapers…, everybody except Israel. Doctors say the right name is H1N1 so I propose we all rally behind this catchy name. Let’s agree on H1N1, dispense with blaming the flu on 4-legged porkers, and celebrate with a slab of bacon for breakfast.

Meanwhile in Washington, where pork is served with nearly every bill, Senator Specter woke up last week, looked in the mirror, shed his Republican cloak and emerged a Democrat.

Meanwhile the Republicans leaped into action. Like college coaches, they’re recruiting. Trying to persuade a couple of Democrat Senators to cross over to the GOP. Really, Senator Specter is more like the Pennsylvania version of Louisiana’s Huey Long. He’ll hold out on voting till he sees which side offers the most for Pennsylvania.

We’re getting another Supreme Court justice. You’ll hear various sides and special interests spouting off that “our candidate is the smartest lawyer in America”. Well, I don’t care if they’re smart. Just give us someone with common sense who can read. Put the old Constitution in front of ’em and say, “Here’s your bible; go home and read it before October.”

Historic quote from Will Rogers:

“See this morning where the Supreme Court says Negroes in Texas have the right to vote at Democratic primaries. Certainly will seem funny to see the Negroes and the whites voting the same ticket. First thing you know they will be allowing a white Republican to associate with a white Democrat in the South. It’s before the Supreme Court now. Yours for quality in politics regardless of quantity and color.” DT #191, March 8, 1927

Weekly Comments: Ideas for keeping your head above water.

COLUMBUS: President Obama asked for my advice Saturday. Yes, he’s looking for ideas on how to reduce government spending.

Well, I’ll jump right in with a big one, and gladly give him full credit. Raise the retirement age for collecting Social Security to 75 by 2020. This is a tough one, but do it gradual and give a bonus for these deserving old folks: once you reach 70, you can stop paying into it. People are working longer anyway. With this idea, everybody will want to live longer just to get even with the government. They’ll eat better, drive careful, maybe even stop smoking and drinking. So not only will it save on Social Security, but Medicare, too.

Now here’s one for you personally, Mr. President. Stay in Washington. Just because you have Air Force One, and limos, and a helicopter, it don’t mean you need to use them every week. Naturally it’s fun to fly to Des Moines or Tucson to make an announcement standing in front of local scenery and politicians. But a trip that any of us could make for a few hundred dollars, when you go it costs at least a million. Washington has some lovely scenery you can try out. Maybe no corn fields or cactus, but cherry blossoms along the Potomac are more than acceptable.

And these foreign trips to shake hands with various dignitaries: let ’em come here to meet you. Don’t fly off to Europe or South America and sit there and let everyone poke fun at America. Invite ’em here where you’ve got home field advantage.

Here’s one for Congress: stay in session two weeks at a time. Instead of flying home every weekend, work straight through, then take off a week. That way we only pay for about 20 round trips instead of 40 or 50. Why, just imagine the savings from Speaker Pellosi alone.

I don’t know if this will make a dent in your Trillions of deficit spending, but it’s a start. We’ve got to do something or, as I read in the newspaper this morning, “the taxpayers will be drowning in debt for ten years.” While we can’t even pretend to drown a terrorist, drowning a taxpayer is not only legal, it’s encouraged.

Historic quotes from Will Rogers:

“People don’t change under governments. Governments change, but the people remain the same… What does it matter who is in any four years? You got to get out and hustle for it or you don’t get it, no matter what Government is in.” Saturday Evening Post, Dec. 4, 1926

“There’s the one thing no nation can ever accuse us of and that is Secret Diplomacy. Our foreign dealings are an Open Book, generally a Check Book.” WA #45, October 21, 1923

Weekly Comments: Oklahoma spurs ideas for tea parties and Earth Day.

COLUMBUS: I just returned from two days in Oklahoma City. The Land Title Association invited me to their annual powwow at the Skirvin Hotel. After all the titleing work was done, they held a Roaring Twenties dinner, and everybody dressed up in costumes. It’s the biggest business Oklahoma Halloween costume shops have ever done in April.

Al Capone was there, and several keystone cops to chase (but never catch) him. I saw one forlorn farmer who had lost his wheat crop, but that may have been for real. Most popular though was the flapper girls. Why, there was enough of ’em we could have put on a Ziegfeld Follies show just like the old days.

These folks have done their part to keep land sales honest in Oklahoma. You don’t hear about foreclosures there the way you do in Florida and California.

In Washington (or was it South America) President Obama announced a new plan for CIA agents. From now on they’ll get the same training for dealing with prisoners as our teachers do with ornery students. “We’re ending torture. There’ll be no raising the voice, no searching their belongings, and absolutely no paddling.” Saudi Arabia replied, “We’re pleased the U.S. ended torturous water boarding, hair pulling and eye gouging.” They went on, “In the Muslim world, we would never do any of those things, except in a humane way.” Uh, humane way? “Yes, before we do anything to a man’s head, first we chop it off.”

But these CIA birds are shrewd, probably some are former Navy SEALS, so they’ll figure another way to get information from captured terrorists.

Everybody got their tax forms finished last week, then some of ’em went to a Tea Party. Maybe a million all together, and another million or two that would have liked to go. Taxes was the prime topic, mainly on how they’re spent.

I wish a reporter had asked a few tea partiers two questions: What spending should be cut? And what services would you personally be willing to give up? On the first one, ear mark pork barrel projects and bailout money paying million dollar bonuses would have been mentioned often. On the second, a hundred people would have given a hundred different answers, except the ones who admitted they really didn’t want to give up anything that directly benefits them. There’s the rub. We want the government to spend less, but it’s the other fellow we want ’em to spend less on.

Earth Day is April 22, as it has been since 1970. Most of the fine folks you’ll hear speaking on Earth Day will have good ideas for preserving and protecting the planet, or their favorite parts of it, mostly by fencing it off just to look at. Our farmers and ranchers consider themselves environmentalists, too, and they do a mighty fine job protecting the land in this country. The big difference is, while they are protecting it they’re also producing from it. So remember these agricultural environmentalists because they are trying to provide a steady supply of some essentials for you, like corn, meat, potatoes, cotton and 2x4s.

Historic quotes from Will Rogers:

“The crime of taxation is not in the taking it, it’s in the way that it’s spent.” DT #1764, March 20, 1932

“It costs ten times more to govern us than it used to, and we are not governed one-tenth as good.” DT #1770, March 27, 1932

COLUMBUS: In case you were ever in doubt, today proved the worth of a Navy. Those Somali pirates had been living high, raking in millions of dollars faster than a Wall Street Hedge Fund manager. These aren’t your Disney pirates; they’re bright, ruthless kidnappers who trained by studying the likes of Al Capone, Willy Sutton, and the Dalton Gang.

But they neglected one big lesson: don’t rile the U.S. Navy.

The French Navy was no pushover either. Now we’ve gotta convince a few more countries to get serious with these Somali terrorists. The head guys are on land and think they’re safe. We’ve got an Air Force too, and if a few bombs eliminate a few head guys, the ships held for ransom may be let go in a hurry.

The heroism of ship captain Richard Phillips and the Navy Seals sharpshooters overshadowed the big news from the White House: a non-allergenic dog for the First Daughters. It’s a special dog, a water dog of Portugese and Kennedy ancestry. The girls named him Bo.

There’s been more interest in naming the dog than naming assistants for Treasury Secretary Geithner. They’re short a dozen high level money managers to work on our financial mess. Personally I figure quite a few taxpayers who today are scrambling to dig up enough cash to cover their check to the IRS are qualified. The first question on the job application should be this one. If you are hit with a huge unexpected expense that drives you far into debt, the following year would you plan to: A. Spend more; B. Spend the same; C. Spend less; or D. It depends?

If they answer “C”, hire ’em. The government is already overloaded with ones who said “A”. If you get more worthy candidates than needed, send ’em to Sacramento or some other state Capitol.

The Obama family attended a local church on Easter Sunday. Like a lot of other church goers, they gave no indication they’ll return any time soon. See, they haven’t decided yet on a home church in Washington.

In the Masters golf tournament, they had a three-way tie, and none of ’em was named Tiger. The playoff winner was an Argentinian named Angel Cabrera. Quite appropriate for Easter Sunday.

Historic quotes from Will Rogers:

“The income tax has made more liars out of the American people than golf has.” WA #99, Nov. 2, 1924. Also DT #822, March 15, 1929

“If there ever was a time to save, it’s now. When a dog gets a bone he don’t go out and make the first payment on a bigger bone with it. He buries the one he’s got… Don’t make the first payment on anything. First payments is what made us think we were prosperous, and the other nineteen is what showed us we were broke.” DT #1234, July 9, 1930

Weekly Comments: Will has more faith in Detroit than in Washington

COLUMBUS: Congress passed what they humorously called a budget. It says we will spend $3.5 Trillion of the $2.5 Trillion we take in. Where else could you call a spending plan with a Trillion dollar deficit a budget, except maybe on Wall Street.

Actually Congress didn’t pass the budget, the Democrats did. Republicans may as well stayed home.

By coincidence, President Obama went to Europe for a series of conferences. First, he and Mrs. Obama met the Queen. Then he conferred with the leaders of 20 countries. Everything was going smooth, they all liked him, right up to the minute he asked ’em to loan him a Trillion dollars. Then his popularity sorta waned.

He went on to more conferences in Germany and Prague, and suggested all nations with nuclear weapons should give them up, and everybody cheered. That is everybody except the nations who have nuclear weapons. You know, even if we got rid of the nukes, we would have to dig up another Albert Einstein to invent something just as good.

That G-20 conference in England got off to a rocky start. The hooligans heard G-20 was coming to London, thought it was a soccer team, and started a riot. Did you see it? They hurled insults, bricks and empty beer bottles. (An Englishman, even an ignorant hooligan, would never throw a bottle before emptying it.)

For years we’ve heard, “As General Motors goes, so goes the nation.” Well, that pretty much explains the hole we’re in today. For close to a hundred years, we put our faith and our monthly payments in the automobile industry. Every time we bought one, we hoped the payments would stop before the car did. Then about ten years ago Congress, Fannie Mae and the bankers said, “Put your money into housing, even if you don’t have any, because a house always goes up, not down like a car.” So we did. We bought a house and a car, sometimes two or three of each. But houses dropped faster than cars and now nobody is buying either one.

So GM is broke, our President fired their president, and says he’ll run it from Washington. Chrysler is gonna be paired up with Fiat. An earlier deal with the German company, Daimler-Benz, ended in divorce, so this time she is to be married off to an Italian. If you wonder what a bright European company would see in this ugly step-sister, well, you haven’t seen the dowery. President Obama is playing father of the bride and giving Fiat $6 Billion.

Personally, I would have put GM and Chrysler together. Instead of turning it over to Wall Street bankers and Washington lawyers to run, bring in a president who knows how to build the best “vehicles” in their industry. I would suggest the president of John Deere, the president of Caterpillar, or the president of Harley-Davidson. Either hire one of them, or Lee Iacocca.

Word leaked out that the President’s economic advisors recently got big payoffs from Wall Street and the bankers. Larry Summers collected $5 Million for giving them advise. If his advice is worth $5 million, why did stocks drop 50 percent? Why would we think his advice to the President is any better than it was to Wall Street?

Historic quotes from Will Rogers:

“The budget is a mythical beanbag. Congress votes mythical beans into it, and then tries to reach in and pull real beans out.” DT #2047, Feb. 24, 1933

“Popularity is the easiest thing in the world to gain and it is the hardest thing to hold.” Radio, May 18, 1930

“America, a funny thing about us, we never was very good in conference. We have a unique record. We never lost a war and we never won a conference. I think, without any degree of egotism, we can say, with our tremendous resources we can lick any nation in the world single-handed. And yet we can’t confer with Costa Rica and come home with our shirts on.” Radio, April 6, 1930

 

Weekly Comments: Bankers tangle with taxpayers over Geithner’s Trillion

COLUMBUS: In Washington Mr. Geithner has the Treasury printing press running night and day. You know, when you set out to print a Trillion dollars in small bills, it takes awhile.

I don’t know what he plans to do with all that money. I had someone help with the arithmetic and it comes out that if you divide that Trillion dollars among the hundred million taxpayers in this country, each one gets $10,000. I doubt anyone would turn it down, and they might spend enough to kinda stimulate the economy.

But before you start making a long shopping list, here’s some news to jolt you back in your seat. This new tax on electricity from coal or oil is going to cost us over $0.6 Trillion. So unless you intend to live in the dark your share will cost you around $6000 of the $10,000.

Then here come the bankers. The big bankers say they have other plans for this Trillion dollars. They say, “We’re the ones that need that money, not the taxpayer.”. Of course, when the bankers had the money a few years ago they invested it in toxic assets. They didn’t call them “toxic assets.” No, they called them “affordable mortgages for people with no income.” Or “higher limits on an unnecessary credit card.”

In Nevada, the Legislature announced they don’t want our nuclear waste after all. They let us spend billions and billions fixing up a hole in Yucca Mountain to store it in, and now they changed their mind. I would tell Nevada, “That’s fine, you return the billions we invested in Nevada and we’ll call it even. Otherwise, we’ll take back Hoover Dam.” There’s probably legislators that don’t want it either.

President Obama announced that the War on Terror has ended. From now on it’s an “Overseas Contingency Operation”. The world is waiting to hear what Osama Bin Ladin thinks of his new occupation, “Contingency Operative.”

What we need is a contingency operation for the country, right here, not just overseas. We need a contingency for Mexican drug lords. And a contingency for higher oil prices and one for bankrupt banks. Obama even needs a contingency plan in case North Carolina loses next weekend.

Mrs. Obama has her own contingency operation: planting a garden. I think it’s a good idea for the First Lady, and it sets an example for the country. She had some school children come and help dig up part of the White House lawn. The garden is about 30 feet by 40 feet, with plans for 55 kinds of vegetables, fruits and berries. She intends to provide vegetables for her family, the White House staff, and guests at official functions, plus donate to a soup kitchen and give some to the students doing the work. With that many mouths to feed, without Immaculate Intervention she’s gonna need to plow up a few acres of the National Mall. (And by Immaculate Intervention, I do not mean help from her husband.)
Historic quote from Will Rogers:
“You have a fine organization. I understand you have ten thousand here; and if you count the ones in the various federal prisons, it brings your total membership up to around thirty thousand.” From a 1923 speech at a national convention of Bankers

Weekly Comments: Congress and the President provide the humor

COLUMBUS: Congress is acting plumb nutty. They just announced a plan to tax 90% of the AIG bonus money that Congress approved just a month ago. Of course, we would like for ’em to give the bonuses back, considering we own 80 percent of the company. But Washington is fretting over a few million in retention bonuses while the trillions they handed out are wandering around, promiscuously.

The latest plan from Mr. Geithner is to run off a Trillion dollars in bills on the old printing press. China and the rest of the world stopped loaning us money, so he figured he’d just print some himself and hand it out. He also wants FDIC to spend half a Trillion to stop banks from going under. As I recollect, FDIC insures our bank accounts against bank failure. And at the rate banks are failing, they could run out of money before Christmas. So keep your fingers crossed. Our Treasurer is betting $1.5 Trillion of our money on the plan.

If the President and Congress had an inkling how much trouble they would have spending and managing that $700 Billion stimulus, maybe they would have given more thought to letting people keep their tax payments for 3 or 4 months. There would have been no need for Congressional hearings to charge any average taxpayer with giving his tax rebate toward a million dollar Wall Street bonus. Little, if any, would have wound up in French banks. Popular vacation spots might be hiring instead of laying off.

The whole country now realizes we overspent, over mortgaged, and over capitalized. The only way to solve the problem is to get back to spending only what we make, and if you have to borrow, make sure it’s no more than you can reasonably expect to pay back. The people know it; the problem is convincing Congress and the President.

Our President is trying to juggle a whole lot of problems instead of working on one big one. He’s campaigning across the country and on television programs for everything he promised: taxes on coal, gas and oil; national health care; smaller farms; taxes on the rich.

Maybe something said by a humorist in 1931 could help the President focus (see first quote below). Will Rogers was invited to appear on a special radio broadcast on unemployment. He was followed on the program by President Herbert Hoover.

 

“Now we read in the papers every day, and they get us all excited over one or a dozen different problems that’s supposed to be before this country. There’s not really but one problem before the whole country at this time. It’s not balancing (the) budget. And it’s not the League of Nations that we read so much about. It’s not the silver question. The only problem that confronts this country today is at least 7,000,000 people are out of work. That’s our only problem. There is no other one before us at all. It’s to see that every man that wants to is able to work, is allowed to find a place to go to work. And also to arrange some way of getting more equal distribution of the wealth in the country.” Radio, October 18, 1931

“I could study all my life and not think up half the amount of funny things they can think of in one session of Congress.” WA #119, March 22, 1925

“There’s two different schools of thought in this country on the value of money. People who have money are against the printing press. They’re against printing any more money. And people that haven’t got any are in favor of it, you see? That’s the two schools. Both of them, mind you, are equally honest. It’s awful hard to reconcile two views like that. The only way I see for folks to ever view the money question alike is for everybody not to have any. Then they’ll all look at it the same way; or go the other way and let everybody have some. But if nobody’s got any, the old printing press will look pretty good. But if everybody’s got some, in the ash can goes the printing press.” Radio, May 26, 1935

 

“Personality and promises are basic to politics. You have the personality. I’ll equip you with the promises.”   From the movie “County Chairman”. In the role of a campaign manager, Will Rogers adlibbed this line to his candidate. 1935

Historic quotes from Will Rogers: