Weekly Comments: Sen. Byrd helps state one last time #610

July 4, 2010

WESTON, West Va: Senator Robert Byrd left the Capitol Building for a final time last week. He was elected to Congress the same year Eisenhower was elected President, 1952.

As President, Eisenhower is remembered for building the Interstate Highway system. In West Virginia, Byrd is remembered for building everything else. Not quite, but he did arrange for a few buildings, including Social Security and FBI units, to settle in West Virginia when they ran out of space in DC.

I got to introduce him once in 1978 in Charleston when a wonderful group called Toastmasters gave him a Communication and Leadership award. He was the Senate Majority Leader at the time.

Byrd’s funeral was Friday in Charleston. When you look over the list of dignitaries who attended, including the President and Congressional leaders, you realize that, even in death, he managed to bring a few more federal dollars to his home state.

Down on the Gulf coast, a lot of beaches were deserted for the holiday. Usually hurricanes get the blame, but this year it’s BP.

I don’t want to get tarred and feathered for helping out BP, but if we expect them to pay all these Billions in costs, they’ve got to sell some gasoline, and people are boycotting BP filling stations. Here’s my idea: change the name of the stations from BP to Amoco. Americans like Amoco, which traces it’s roots to the Standard Oil companies of John D. Rockefeller. Henry Ford and Rockefeller did more to put Americans on the move than anyone. And Eisenhower helped them get there on smooth pavement without a stoplight at every intersection.

Did you know that President Calvin Coolidge was born on July 4? He has become kind of a patron saint to the Tea Party folks, not because of when he was born but what he did as President. Here’s how I summarized his record as he left office in March 1929:"Coolidge (becomes President) and does nothing and retires a hero, not only because he hadn't done anything but because he had done it better than anyone."

President Obama gave a speech on illegal immigration: "No matter how decent they are, the 11 million who broke these laws should be held accountable. We’re going to publish their pictures in the newspaper. Then we’ll expedite their hearings so they can vote in 2012." He didn’t really say the last part, but he was thinking it. The 11 million he referred to is an underestimate, and if he wrangles a way to make these folks American citizens without shutting down our borders, he’ll find out there’s 20 or 30 million by the time he leaves office.

Historic quote from Will Rogers: (on Independence Day speeches)
"Never was as much politics indulged in under the guise of Freedom and Liberty. They was 5 per cent what George Washington did, and 95 per cent what the speaker intended to do." DT #2782, July 5, 1935

Randall Reeder
Will Rogers Today http://willrogerstoday.com
614-477-0439 willrogers@aol.com
Need a Speaker? Hurry up and hire me before I die... again.

Weekly Comments: Congress spends mythical dollars; President creates mythical jobs #581

Dec. 13, 2009

COLUMBUS: Congress passed another spending bill for $1.1 Trillion, bringing the total budget for next year to $3.6 Trillion. While most folks are cutting back, making do with less, Congress decided the government needed a big raise. Since taxes will only bring in about $2 Trillion, President Obama will ask China to kick in the rest.

Back in 1930, I said on the radio that Henry Ford would make a great President. He would arrange Congress like an automobile assembly line. A bill would start out, and as it went by, every Congressman and Senator would add something on to it. Well, this year for the budget bill they added 5000 things on to it. That’s 5000 pork barrel earmarks who’s only purpose is to get them re-elected, which means they serve no national purpose at all. Can you imagine a Model T Ford with 5000 extraneous gadgets stuck on it? Why, it would be so weighted down it wouldn’t even roll off the assembly line. With broken springs, bent frame and four busted tires, you would have to pull it off with a bulldozer.

With so many people out of work, the president announced a “targeted jobs program”. It’s a good idea and I hope it works, but so far the new jobs are mostly targeted for Washington, DC. That’s the one place that doesn’t need more jobs. It’s the only place where you can sell your house for more than you owe on it.

Here’s more news about jobs. The Census Bureau had planned to hire 5000 people in Ohio to make sure everyone got counted in 2010. Maybe where you live it’s different, but in Ohio the population hasn’t changed much in ten years. So it was surprising to learn that the Census Bureau decided 5000 couldn’t handle the load, they will need 20,000. I don’t know what those extra 15,000 are going to do all day, but at least President Obama can claim he created the jobs. I joked earlier when the Census Bureau gave up on using computers, and went back to pencils, they should just hire Fed Ex, UPS, and Google. Those folks know where everybody lives, and would finish the count in a week.

Temporary, short-term jobs had been up a bit, but even that number will decrease since Tiger Woods left the country.

Historical quotes from Will Rogers:

“When the government runs anything, as they do practically everything (in socialist Russia), there is always about twice or three times as many working in the place as would be found in private enterprises.” Saturday Evening Post, Nov. 6, 1926

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

“Henry Ford has given more value for the least money. A Ford car and a marriage certificate is the two cheapest things there is. We no more than get either one than we want to trade them in for something better.” Radio, June 1, 1930

Randall Reeder is Will Rogers Today
http://willrogerstoday.com willrogers@aol.com
614-477-0439
Need a Speaker? Hurry up and hire me before I die... again.