BY GREG MARKLEY
OPINION —
In 1955, Fob James was a Lanett native playing college football under Auburn’s legendary coach Ralph “Shug” Jordan. He would sometimes fumble the ball, so he was nicknamed “Fumbling Fob.” Yet that year, James was named All-American as a halfback. During 1956, he played professional football in Canada with the Montreal Alouettes. It was evident that James was underestimated.
As a Democratic governor of Alabama (1979-1983) and as a Republican governor (1995-1999), James’ handling of monetary and fiscal policies was better than most people realize. Mark Thornton, senior fellow at the Mises Institute in Auburn, was an economics advisor to James in his second term.
“Gov. James was a budget hawk as both a Democrat and later as a Republican,” said Thornton, a prominent libertarian. “He was frustrated with all the automatic increased spending built into government by special interest groups — things beyond his control.
“He was the best steward of taxpayer money in recent history. When he left office political com-mentators on Alabama Public Television were virtually speechless when asked the last time a governor left office with large surpluses in all three major budgets,” Thornton said.
He said another politician who, like James, has not gotten his due for properly handling government funds and budgets is former President Carter.
“The current federal government and politicians make anyone in the past look responsible and adult-like. Also, they were dealing with an economic depression, high inflation, and high unemployment — they had to do some responsible things.”
Thornton pointed out: “He wanted to reverse some of the horrors the government was imposing with the war on drugs. He also started to privatize public utilities, like air travel, pipelines and phones, which still brings the American people enormous benefits.”
In the midst of this discussion of James and Carter…
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