Full Employment, THEN and NOW....It Doesn't Take A New Law In Order To Act!

President Obama and the Democrats don't need new legislation from Congress in order to put unemployed Americans to work! In fact, they need to act on a law a Democrat-controlled House and Senate already passed, and a Democrat president already signed into law!

The law is Public Law 95-523 which is "The Full Employment Act," or more properly "The Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment Act."

That act was exactly that: an act!

It was passed in the year preceding the 1996 Presidential Election. It was signed into law with the sole apparent ongoing purpose of gaining votes, because it was never vigorously implemented.

But it is still public law.

In 1995 the law was passed by the Democrats who were looking ahead (just as they do now) to an election. They knew that in the 1996 election they were in trouble. They counted on the political posturing of their Full Employment Act to win them much needed votes in key areas of the country. It helped, but not enough. If they ever intended to use the law to do anything about full employment and its other goals, it must be said now that they did a better job of passing the law than they did of using the law they passed.

It appears Democrats and President Obama have the same objective now, the year before this coming election year. The worthwhile goal has not changed. Only the political players have changed. Now the Democrats, apparently looking back to 1995 and 1996, think they can produce another employment act that could win votes again.

Someone thinks they can be rewarded twice for not even taking effective action once!

As if the outcome in 1995 was not enough, the Democrats had Senator Humphrey's wife as an honored guest at the signing into law of the Full Employment Act! Her husband had worked hard, along with Senator Hawkins, to do something that should have had a lasting effect. Once the ceremony of the signing was done, however, the law gathered dust reminiscent of the biblical verse that reads "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal." (1 Corinthians 13:1) The stentorian echoes had hardly died down when the act was paraded for its political dividends and disgracefully allowed to languish as it does today.

You and I, President Obama and the Democrats, and anyone else who cares enough to do so, can read Public Law 95-523 and apply it today.

Why don't you President Obama? As America's Chief Executive, isn't it incumbent enough that you uphold the law your predecessors crafted and signed into law? Or is it simply that you are the "incumbent" and see it more to your advantage to push through your own version for your own perceived political benefit?

An honorable two senators named Humphrey and Hawkins were already recognized and honored for completing that task when they fashioned a law for those who followed after them to use.

The lessons that came out of that last effort are still valid. The very best the Democrats could do in 1995 wasn't used as a workable solution when they were in full control. Shortly after his election President Reagan and the Democrats of his time agreed that unemployment was also their biggest problem and that reviving the economy then went hand in hand with jobs and reduced deficits. An analysis of Public Law 95-523 pushed through by Democrats can allow us all to realize that no one party made the problems, and no one party is going to solve it without a unified effort and the skilled, and cooperative leadership to bring that about.

That said, [1] don't ignore what has already been written into law, and [2] don't start the legal process all over again. The country, and especially the American families that are suffering from today's unemployment, can't wait for and won't tolerate more endless bickering. Simply amend the existing Public Law 95-523 to correct any flaws, create the needed jobs, and reduce the deficits.

Some say we don't need much rocket science anymore, but that's not even rocket science.

© This work is licensed under a Creative Comments Attribution-No Derivs 3.0 United States License