The Chairman of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Campaign for Free Enterprise says creating government programs to put the jobless back to work would be a step backward.
Stan Anderson has worked in the White House, golfed with presidents from both parties and led a U.S. delegation to a United Nations conference.
But after more than four decades in Washington, his most visible role may well be his present job as chairman of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Campaign for Free Enterprise.
Anderson addressed a Chamber of Medford/Jackson County Forum at Rogue Valley Country Club Monday during his first trip to Oregon since earning a law degree at Willamette University in 1969.
Two weeks ago, Anderson wrote a letter to the New York Times rebutting a column by Nobel Prize-winning Paul Krugman, “Against Learned Helplessness,” that suggested a return to past practices.
“We could have WPA (Works Progress Administration) -type programs putting the unemployed to work doing useful things like repairing roads — which would also, by raising incomes, make it easier for households to pay down debt,” Krugman wrote.
“We could have a serious program of mortgage modification, reducing the debts of troubled homeowners. We could try to get inflation back up to the 4 percent rate that prevailed during Ronald Reagan’s second term, which would help to reduce the real burden of debt.”
Read more in today’s Mail Tribune.
