From the St. Cloud Times:
Published: January 27. 2008 12:30AMAs we watch a congressional "stimulus package" unfold, I hope Rep. Michele Bachmann and Sens. Norm Coleman and Amy Klobuchar will stand up for putting the benefits where they can do the most good: with middle- and lower-income Americans who need all the financial help they can get and who will spend the money in ways that will help employment.
People who work hard and yet do not earn enough to actually pay taxes should benefit, too.
Mr. Bradbury, you apparently haven't been paying attention because if you had you would have already been given the answer to the question of whether Bachmann would give financial help to middle and low income Americans. Aside from the obvious pride Bachmann feels about us "workingest" Minnesotans working two jobs, the stimulus she has decided to support (HR 4995) does nothing to stimulate working Americans. What it does is give additional tax breaks to corporations. Corporations that Bachmann hopes will then provide more jobs and this despite the fact that she acknowledges we are already working multiple jobs. I wonder if Bachmann realized that contradiction when deciding to hand out the cash to corporations?
And please, no more tax-breaks for the wealthy. Any suggestion that those irresponsible and, yes, bipartisan gifts to the very rich early in the Bush presidency have helped more than they have contributed to the slow but steady growth in our federal deficit is without merit.
Oops, Mr. Bradbury, perhaps you shouldn't click on that link or read the purpose of the Bachmann stimulus solution given that tax breaks for the wealthy is EXACTLY what Bachmann wants to do. That's not all! Bachmann has been saying all along that she wants to make those magical tax cuts permanent which have given us so much prosperity these many years. As income inequality becomes more severe with even the President acknowledging its severity, Michele Bachmann believes the solution is to allow those very people that hold upwards of 75% of the wealth to gain access to even more.
It takes a long time to build a genuine recession. It started when majority Republicans as well as Democrats gave up on policies of fair taxation and fostered an economic environment in which middle- and lower-class people have seen their earning power and wages fall behind the benefits experienced by those higher on the income scale.
I hope members of Congress will start taking the long view on their actions.
They must mandate genuine oversight of those agencies and authorities who should have been watching the growth of loans to people who simply couldn't afford and/or didn't understand their mortgages.
The loss of homes and equity and nest eggs, which has yet to reach its zenith, composes a great sadness in the lives of millions of people.
It should sadden and concern us all. Someone should have been paying attention. Someone should have spoken up long ago.
... Today, if we truly care about ... our nation, we should all be paying attention.
Cross Posted on Dump Bachmann
