JUSTIFYING “JOE, THE JUST!"

By Edwin Cooney

Last week, after composing and sending “GO, JOE, GO," I received a response from my favorite type of Republican.

This gentleman is now in his late sixties which means that he probably cast his first vote around 1972 — and it's a good bet that his vote wasn't for Democratic Senator George McGovern and Vice Presidential candidate  R. (that's Robert) Sargent Shriver! This gentleman is no ogre. He's a well meaning and very prosperous citizen (and, as a Lion, he seeks to serve the public's interests). However, this gentleman is wedded to GOP doctrine. Hence he had the following response to last week's column:

"The nearly two trillion dollar plan I do not understand, where is this money coming from with the unemployment being so high? Meaning so federal taxes received are much lower!"

(Note: This gentleman who I'll call “Mr. Lion Heart” spends his winters lately in Panama and this year in Columbia, the largest country in northeast South America.) He goes on:

"Then, $15 an hour. Here in Columbia people make between 1 and 2 dollars an hour. They are quite content with what they have!"

Mr. Lion Heart's political orientation is, simply and directly, rock-ribbed upstate New York Republicanism. In other words, never spend more than you take in, otherwise you're headed for financial ruin.

People generally fail to draw the distinctions between business budgeting  and government budgeting. As JFK asserted in his 1962 speech at Yale, the business budget which is about immediate profit doesn't distinguish between a deficit and an investment. Exactly who the federal budget owes when it spends more than it takes in is not precise. Republicans and other conservatives always insist that by overspending, we put future generations in debt. What they don't address is how an already indebted people can recover sufficiently to avoid the exact same situation for coming generations.

As far back as I can remember, Republican and Conservative leaders who are usually better off financially than most of the people you and I relate to on a daily basis have demonstrated little regard for working men and women except when it comes to the expectation of labor union leaders. Thus, labor leaders are suspected of both selfishness and a lack of appreciation for capitalism when they compel workers to conform and resist the demands of corporate owners and bosses.

Thus, Mr. Lion Heart is sure that everyone in Columbia who is making one or two dollars an hour is content. Knowing him and appreciating much of his outlook and commitment to Lionism as I do, I think that it is unlikely that he has familiarized himself with those who represent the people of Columbia, nor is it likely that he's interested in or even familiar with the political structure in Columbia. After all, he's a Lion, not a politician. His genuine interest in people has to do with their immediate conditions and needs, especially those of children.

Nevertheless, Mr. Lion Heart does represent a Republicanism that has thrived here in America since its opposition to Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal.

What too many Conservatives don't appear to me to grasp are the following historic facts and circumstances:

First, there have been numerous major panics and depressions in our history. The first occurred in the 1780s just following our independence from Great Britain. That depression resulted in the establishment of the Federal Government under the newly established Constitution of the United States. There were financial crises in 1819, 1837, 1857, 1873, 1893 and 1907 with the worst depression coming in 1929. Not one of these depressions had to do with government spending. Not even the Recession of 1958 or the terrible Recession of 2008 was due to deficit government spending. As to those who insist that the 1929 Depression wasn't really cured until World War II, the point is obvious. The federal government paid for practically everything during World War II. Business merely provided the opportunities for employment which were largely paid for via government contracts. All of our economic depressions  were ultimately attributed to business and banking mis-speculations and their subsequent panics. What's even more significant about the 1837 Depression is the fact that it occurred only two years after the Andrew Jackson administration paid off the government's debt to European nations that Alexander Hamilton had begun paying back in the 1790s. Thus, indebtedness has usually been the result of financial depression, not the cause of them.

Even more to the point, if businesses are to expand and even sprout new enterprises, they must have workers and customers who possess the money to purchase the goods and services that must be enhanced.

As for $15 an hour, that's a salary of $31,800 a year. The question therefore is, if that's enough for John and Susie Q Citizen, it must be enough for all the Lion-Hearted people who live, work and play in the land of the free! If it's not enough for everyone, someone might be  making too much money!

Hence, I again say “Go, Joe The Just, Go!”

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,

EDWIN COONEY