5.

Mr. President,

My family is a military family. We are not rich. My family struggles to pay all the bills some months. You know, the military doesn't exactly pay top wages, but husband enjoys his job. Thankfully, unlike a lot of Americans we do not have to worry about our health care. We also don't have to worry about a mortgage payment. We don't have a lot of bills that other Americans incur, but my husband also works hard for the government and is willing to die for our country.

This so called "stimulus plan", lets not kid ourselves, lets call it what it is. It is a spending plan. According to you, you have to spend money to create jobs. I don't believe that. I believe if you help out the businesses, by cutting taxes or at least not raising them, they are going to be able to create jobs. If their business grows, they have no choice but to create jobs to keep up with the amount of work that is needed. I understand spending money on public works that are "shovel ready" and that are actually needed and will benefit the general population. I don't however think the government should create public sector jobs that are basically digging a hole and then filling it back in. Eventually these types of jobs will end. Then where are these new government employees going to be? Right back in the unemployment line. So really, the tax money spent on these jobs didn't do what it was supposed to do at all. It technically was just temporary work.

The pork that is in this "stimulus plan" also just makes my stomach turn. If I could I would take a slash and burn attitude towards this bill and go through it line by line and cut out any pork projects that would not immediately create jobs. We don't need money to be put towards the arts, or the zoos, or buying more books for a library. Yes, these are all noble endeavors, but frankly right now, there are more important things at hand.

Big banks. Let them fail. No I am serious. If they can't figure out how the heck to run their business properly, maybe they shouldn't be in business. This is what capitalism is. Survival of the fittest. These executives who are taking massive bonuses for running their company into the ground, let them invest their own money into their company to help it stay afloat. I would much rather have a bunch of smaller banks with smart lending practices than have a bunch of big banks that don't know when they are making a bad deal. We have already given them $790 BILLION dollar in federal money. If they can't figure out how to get that huge amount of money to work for them, good riddance. If we keep giving them money will they learn a lesson or will they come back looking for more handouts? Where are we even getting the money? Are we borrowing from Peter to pay Paul? Are we borrowing from countries that are not exactly our friends? I have a feeling the government is doing all of the above. Like my mom used to tell me, money doesn't just grow on trees. Please, cut these banks off and let them sink or swim on their own accord. We are not doing the American tax payers any favors by letting the banks pull us further into debt.

Personally, I know we are in for hard times. I know we are going to have to suffer a bit. I just don't want my kids paying for the stupidity of bankers who didn't know when to say no. I don't want my kids suffering because people didn't know how to live within their means. I don't want my kids to suffer because our society lost perspective, threw caution to the wind and spent our way into a nightmare. I know this spending bill is as good as passed at this point, but lets at least try to make the money that is going to be spent work for us for a long time. Lets think of it as capital that needs to be invested in the United States Corporation and lets get this business back on track. Hopefully, if it is spent right, we can start turning a profit instead of just constantly throwing more money at the next fire that pops up. Creating more government is not the answer. One more entitlement program is not going to help the problem. One more government study isn't going to help. The only thing that is going to help is to let Capitalism and our Constitution work their magic. Lets not just throw money at the problem and rewrite the rules for American society.


Thanks for listening. God bless.

A. Citizen
US Military Base Overseas via. Charleston, S.C.