To the editor,

Last week we said goodbye to a Tenn. giant, Governor Ned McWherter. It is a good time to reflect on his legacy and compare what he set out to do and what he accomplished as governor with the political perspectives and policies of the current governor, Bill Haslam.
Ned McWherter talked the talk and walked the walk. When he became governor in 1987, almost half of our counties, 42 out of 95, had double-digit unemployment. McWherter’s solution was a 95-county jobs program. When he left office in 1995, Tenn. had the lowest unemployment since we started to keep records. Instead of 42 counties with ten percent or more unemployment, there was only one.
Compare McWherter’s story with today’s. Tenn. now has 76 counties grappling with double-digit unemployment. Republican Governor Bill Haslam talked a great deal last year during his campaign about jobs in every county, but he has shown zero support for jobs and the jobs bill now in the legislature. When asked, “Where are the jobs?” Governor Haslam responded “That’s always a fair question”. However, it is a fair question without an apparently good answer from him.
Other conservative leaders in the General Assembly, such as Lt. Governor Ron Ramsey, have flat out said that the government does not create jobs. I challenge Ramsey to check the history books on Governor Ned McWherter’s 95-county jobs program. A lot of candidates promise to focus on jobs, but not every candidate backs up that promise with action.
We have 300,000 Tennesseans out of work and begging for Governor Haslam and the Republicans in the majority to present a meaningful jobs plan. We need leadership not empty rhetoric and empty promises.
Tenn. Democrats are fighting for a law that would create jobs in the state by giving Tenn. businesses priority when selecting government contracts. There are common sense solutions that we should all be able to support, but Democrats cannot do it alone. House Bill 811, sponsored by Democratic Senator Eric Stewart, Belvidere, represents one effort to alleviate the high level of unemployment that now exists in Tenn.
Let’s challenge our current Republican representatives to stop talking and walk the walk. It is time to get the job done.

James Hale
Riverwatch, Tenn.
Jhale386@gmail.com