JFK flashback

Have you heard? Democrats of yesteryear would've never followed the dogma of today's ultra-liberal Democratic Party. Unemployment extensions as a central piece of economic stimulus? Nonsense! What we need is to get back to the more conservative days of the Kennedy era.

From this day in 1961:

JFK Asks $1.2 Billion Jobless Aid

Washington (AP) - President Kennedy asked for billion-dollar action on his anti-recession proposals yesterday. He sent Congress two bills, one to extend unemployment benefits, the other to help children whose fathers are out of work.

The two bills would provide more than $1.2 billion of assistance to the unemployed. A third bill, calling for a boost in the minimum wage, will reach Congress today.

The most expensive bill in the package was the one on unemployment benefits. It temporarily would continue or reinstate payments to those who have exhausted all their benefits and still have no job.

Kennedy estimated this bill would provide $950 million for three million workers.

His second bill would authorize temporary help to needy children who fathers are unemployed. An estimate of the cost: $305 million for the 15 months of its operation

"The need for prompt enactment of this legislation is clear," Kennedy said in a letter that accompanied the two bills. The letter was sent to Speaker Sam Rayburn, D-Tex., and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, who presides over the Senate.

The White House said the minimum wage bill would include a formula for raising the floor to $1.15 an hour immediately and to $1.25 within two years. The present minimum is $1 an hour.

Oh.