Democrats have no business helping management.

[Octafish]

18. 'My father always told me that all businessmen were sons of bitches...never believed it until now.''

JFK and Steel, Bush and Oil

by Rex Bradford
2 Sep 2008

"You know, if there was a magic wand to wave, I’d be waving it, of course. I strongly believe it’s in our interest that we reduce gas prices, gasoline prices. … No, I think that if there was a magic wand, and say, okay, drop price, I’d do that. … But there is no magic wand to wave right now." - President George W. Bush, 4-29-2008

"The simultaneous and identical actions of United States Steel and other leading steel corporations increasing steel prices by some six dollars a ton constitute a wholly unjustified and irresponsible defiance of the public interest." - President John F. Kennedy, 4-11-1962

With the cost of gasoline passing $4 per gallon at its peak this summer, those campaigning for President debated whether the U.S. Government should suspend the federal gas tax, pegged at a modest 18.4 cents per gallon since 1993. Noting that most of this money goes into the federal highway trust fund, opponents ridiculed the idea. But what was most remarkable, at a time of record oil industry profits, was the near-universal agreement that the federal government simply had no reasonable options to consider. Regardless of one's stance on free markets and economics, it is a breathtaking example of how much this country has changed in the 46 years since John F. Kennedy took on the steel industry and in three days forced them to roll back price increases which, he said, were in defiance of something we hear less and less about: the public interest.

In 1962, the steel industry occupied a position similar in the American economy to that of the oil industry today. The post-war expansion which brought the interstate highway system, suburban living, and the rise of the airline and automaking industries was dependent on steel as its primary ingredient. Steel was so important that when a nationwide strike was threatened during the Korean War in 1952, President Truman attempted to seize the mills. Even Republican President Eisenhower intervened with the industry in 1959 to hold the line on prices as well as labor costs.

SNIP...

Though the Kennedy administration had never directly asked the steel industry to hold prices, regarding that as improper, Kennedy and his advisors clearly felt there was a tacit agreement, and that they had been double-crossed. Coming right on the heels of the signed labor contract, the announcement seemed to be a deliberate attempt to tell the Democratic President that he didn't tell American business what to do. The stakes were higher than a simple personal affront; the importance of steel in the economy meant the high likelihood that the price increase would trigger further price jumps across many sectors, and kick off a new round of inflation. Kennedy was furious, telling advisors:

"My father always told me that all businessmen were sons of bitches, but I never believed it until now."

The Steel Crisis, written by Roy Hoopes in 1963 before Kennedy's assassination, offers more than a day-by-day account of the three days in which JFK stared down Big Steel. For modern readers, it is also a reminder of how different America has become since 1962. The importance of labor unions in the American economy and political system is taken for granted, something that might puzzle a younger reader of the book. The president speaks openly of ours being a "mixed economy," a term that has gone out of favor as the free market ideology has crowded out all others. Perhaps most anachronistic are Kennedy's repeated references to the "public interest" as a factor to be weighed in the major economic decisions of the day.

Of course, the business sector didn't like such talk any more in the 1960s than it does today. In the aftermath of the crisis, U.S. News stated that "A planned economy, directed from Washington, is what Mr. Kennedy now has in mind." One steel company executive complained "This is a sustained attack on the free enterprise system. It may be all all-out war."

CONTINUED...

http://www.maryferrell.org/pages/JFK_and_Steel_Bush_and_Oil.html

PS: Great memory, yours, jwirr. Not many still remember "The Public Interest," thanks to six corporations runing the entertainment division of War Inc.