Published: August 26, 2009 10:47 pm      

Waurika banker named to Gingrich economic task force

WAURIKA — WAURIKA — When news of the appointment came down, Pryor Waid thought it was a case of mistaken identity.

“When I first was informed,” the president of Waurika’s First Farmers National Bank said, “I thought they had me confused for somebody else.”

That wasn’t the case, however.

Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House and general chairman of American Solutions, was indeed interested in honoring Waid and appointing him to the advisory board of a national task force that’s addressing the economy.

First, Waid was named a 2009 Entrepreneur of the Year for the state of Oklahoma by Gingrich’s Business Defense and Advisory Council.

Then Waid was asked to serve on the advisory board of the Jobs and Prosperity Task Force. The task force is Gingrich’s attempt to “pick the brains” of some of the nation’s most successful and accomplished business leaders and entrepreneurs by focusing on the theme “Jobs Here, Jobs Now, Jobs First.”

Waid accepted the appointment and is among fewer than 40 individuals nation-wide who’ll be advising the task force.

In a press release that accompanied a plaque acknowledging Waid’s entrepreneur award, Gingrich said the Jobs and Prosperity Task Force was spurred by last year’s economic downturn and the nation’s current unemployment situation.

“We’ve given Washington a chance,” Gingrich said, “(and) it has failed miserably and has proven to be so inept at job creation that our unemployment rate, as President Obama himself said, ‘blew past’ his own administration’s projection of 8 percent.

“Now it’s time for the people who know how to create jobs and prosperity, know what it means to stick to a budget and make payroll — the business leaders of this country — to come together and clean up this mess.

“We’re thrilled to have Mr. Waid on board as we begin the work to get this economy back on track.”

Waid was unable to attend the awards ceremony and task force kick-off event.

“I was supposed to meet with Newt a couple weeks ago at a dinner in Washington (D.C.), but I was kind of under the weather,” he noted.

“I believe they’re wanting to get a consensus of ideas from different parts of the country, and hopefully, I’ll be able to add something to (the task force).

“But why in the world they asked me to do so, I don’t know.”

Fifty-two years in the community banking business, including being president of First Farmers National since 1973, are among the reasons Waid drew the appointment.

And despite his bewilderment about the appointment, Waid sees this as an opportunity to be a spokesman for community banks.

“Unemployment concerns me, although right now, the rural areas have not been hit as hard as the metropolitan areas, where there’s more manufacturing and such,” he said.

“But I am concerned about the more metropolitan areas of our state, which are having layoffs and potential layoffs. And I have let my feelings be known publicly about that.

“The community banking viewpoint may have been why I was selected. There are things that affect community banks that have come about from problems the metropolitan banks, the ones that were ‘too large to fail,’ have been having.

“Community banks are being burdened with regulations and FDIC fees for insured deposits. We’re paying the price for what the mega-banks have gotten us into.

“At the community level, our main interest is the economy we exist in, which in our case here is agriculture. We don’t invest in the more high-risk type of investments the mega-banks are involved in.

“I may have been chosen (to the task force) to give the perspective of the community banks, which I’ll be happy to do.”

The Jobs and Prosperity Task force is a component of Gingrich’s tri-partisan organization American Solutions for Winning the Future.

In the future, Waid will be among task force members invited to Washington, D.C. for strategy sessions and events aimed at turning around the nation’s economic problems.