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Los Angeles, California, United States
The blog 'Breaking Bread' is for a civil general discussion, like you might have at the dinner table with guests. The posts 'Economics Without the B.S.' are intended for a general audience that wouldn't have to know the difference between a Phillips Curve, a Laffer Curve, or a Cole Hamels Curve. Vic Volpe was formally educated at Penn State and the University of Scranton, with major studies in History, Economics and Finance, and Business; and, is self-educated since by way of books and on-line university courses. His practical education came from sixty years of work experience in the blue-collar trades as well as a white-collar professional career -- a white-collar professional career in production and R&D. In his professional career and as a long-haul trucker, he has traveled throughout the lower forty-eight. From his professional career alone he has visited many manufacturing plants in the United States, Europe and China. He has lived in major metropolitan areas and very small towns in various parts of the United States. He served three years with the U.S. Army as an enlisted man, much of that time in Germany.

Monday, December 31, 2012

Remembering Wright Patman


With the relief effort for Hurricane Sandy underway, Romney’s remarks about FEMA are drawing scrutiny, which gets us back to what the role of the Federal Government should be.  I love listening to Conservatives on this issue, and I especially love listening to Texans rail against the Federal Government. 

I used to live in Texarkana, Texas in the early ‘70’s when Wright Patman was the Congressman.  Patman was born in the late 19th Century in East Texas when it was poor and isolated from the rest of the country. 
Patman got himself an education and went off to WWI in Europe.  When he came back he got into politics and became the Congressman for East Texas in the late ‘20’s and served, as a Democrat, through the FDR Administration and into the ‘70’s.  To get East Texas out of its isolation from the rest of the country, Patman knew he would have to bring outside money into the East Texas region and so as a Congressman he used his legislative abilities to bring a Federal Government presence into the region.   Patman was an old style Populist – against big business, Eastern Banks, chain stores (like Wal-mart), etc., etc.  His one big negative was that he did not have a favorable record for promoting civil rights.  As a populist, Patman was in favor of small businesses and family-run farms.  Patman used to say, “Anybody that owned two of anything was too big.”
Anyway when I used to hear these Texans rail against the Federal Government, they would then go off to the lake (Lake Texarkana, since named after Patman) to go fishing – a lake built by the Federal Government, run by the Federal Government, and stocked with fish by the Federal Government paid for with Federal taxpayer money.

     Amity Shlaes has a biography on Calvin Coolidge, mentioning that Coolidge was born in the latter 19th Century (about 20 years before Patman) in a small, isolated village of Vermont, Plymouth Notch.  It is an interesting comparison between the two men, their views of the role of government, and in comparing the present with the past of both Texarkana and Plymouth Notch.


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