11.

Mr. President,

I would like to introduce myself as your Independent citizen. One who is socially liberal, and fiscally conservative. I think a person should take care of themselves and their family, I believe in small government, and I don't think the government should have any say in my small business or personal lifestyle choices.

I didn't vote for you, I voted for the other guy. Not that I have anything against you - I think you have fantastic potential and I will happily put my vote behind you if I think you have done a good job four years from now. But things like this stimulus package are the reason I have my doubts.

I am the face of most of your young Southern citizens. I am also the married mother of three, whose husband will lose his job some time this year for the second time in two years. He works for the state government.

We are well-educated, firmly middle-class citizens who will not be able to make ends meet when he loses this job. We will lose our first house, which is now worth less than we paid for it, and have to suck up our pride and pray that one of our relatives has room for our family of five. A family we could afford two years ago, before we lost everything in his first layoff.

I see all these plans to make new jobs, but they're not aimed at people like my husband - a suit with two degrees and a decade of experience in a desk job. Your jobs are aimed at the factory workers, and those with blue-collar experience. Paving roads, and building new schools are admirable goals, but what about those men and women who have never lifted a hammer? The mortgage brokers and bankers and journalists and travel agents whose fields have disappeared? What should they do?

When my husband was laid off the first time, we even looked to the big box stores for simple jobs. But the thing is, that won't cover day care for our children, and we would both have to work full time at one of these stores to pay our bills. We live well within our means and had money set away for such an emergency, but there are only so many hits a family can take before
they're left perilously with nothing. That's where we are.

What are your plans for us, the struggling middle-class families? What are these stimulus packages going to to do for our retirement, and our children's college dreams? And what kind of country is this stimulus package going to leave for my middle-class children?

Sincerely,

Evans, GA