Pat Williams: Time for the private sector to step up

Pat Williams served nine terms as a U.S. representative from Montana. After his retirement, he returned to Montana and is currently teaching at the University of Montana. He occasionally writes op-ed columns, and recently submitted this one on recession spending:

During the early 1950s, the nation, our state, and my hometown of Butte, Montana, were suffering through a year-long economic recession. My parents owned restaurants in Butte and business was hurting, as it was for almost everyone.

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Not yet a teenager, I remember my Dad convincing Mom that, “Come spring we should put a new front on the building.” She objected saying the times were too difficult, customers were not walking through the doors, and the restaurant’s rainy-day fund was already being tapped.