Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Letter to Senator Harkin
Dear Senator Harkin:
You claim "(t)he economic recovery package will save or create 37,000 jobs in Iowa..." Can you please tell me how you come to that conclusion? I would also like to know where the near $800 BILLION will come from. I believe the spendulus package WILL COST 37,000 jobs in Iowa due to failing companies and bankrupt families trying to pay for it.
You have voted to mortgage mine, my children, my children's children, and who knows how many generations more, futures. You and your cohorts in Congress should be ashamed.
Who bails out the government? Oh yea, myself and the millions of other taxpayers. I've given up hope that you will ever come to the understanding that everything you spend comes from people who work for a living. Government produces nothing but dependency and despair. You and President Obama are pushing this nation into a real depression.
Please do Iowa and the rest of the nation a favor and retire.
Sincerely
Thomas Clayton Pope
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2 comments:
Here's their reply. Total nonsense and doesn't address anything I said.
March 4, 2009
Mr. Thomas Pope
416 N. Stewart St.
North Liberty, IA 52317
Dear Thomas:
Thank you for contacting me about the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act). As you may know, with my support, the Congress recently passed, and the President signed, this $790 billion plan. The Recovery Act will help create or sustain about 3.5 million jobs, provide individuals and families with additional disposable income, and lay the groundwork for a sustained economic recovery.
I believe that our deep economic troubles made this legislation urgently necessary. The Department of Labor recently reported that the economy lost 598,000 jobs in January 2009, and more Americans are out of work today than at any point in the last 25 years. While this legislation will not fix our economy overnight, it will go a long way toward reversing this economic slide by creating jobs in the short term and making investments in a new economy that will pay off in the long term.
Among the programs that will help spur employment in the short term are: $27.5 billion for highways, of which the money must be obligated within 120 days, with priority given to projects that can be completed within three years; $8.4 billion for public transit; $7.2 billion for broadband
improvements, much of which will go to rural areas; and $4.6 billion for the Army Corps of Engineers, which will help Iowa rebuild some of the levees and dams destroyed during the 2008 floods.
The Recovery Act also includes $37.5 billion of investments to modernize our nation's energy system; $15.6 billion for Pell Grants, which will help 7 million students pursue post-secondary education; and $24.3 billion to
provide support to families who have been hardest hit by the economic downturn. Finally, the Senate bill includes many tax provisions that will provide businesses and consumers with added flexibility in these tough
times. A detailed summary of the provisions of this bill, along with the full text, can be found on my website at:
http://harkin.senate.gov/arra/index.cfm
I appreciate the comments I have heard from Iowans who are concerned about the cost of this package, particularly in light of our national debt. I share concerns about the size of our national debt, which is why I
have long advocated for responsible federal budgets and "Pay As You Go" spending, which prevents Congress from increasing mandatory spending or making changes to the tax code without paying for it. However, with our
economy facing a deep recession, economists on all sides of the political spectrum agree that reducing our deficit must take a back seat in the short term to fixing our economy.
With that said, I do agree that certain provisions of the bill should have been reduced or eliminated altogether. For example, at the insistence
of the minority party, the legislation contains a one year fix to the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) at a cost of $70 billion. While I agree that the Senate must fix the AMT, so that it does not impact middle-income households, this change will do nothing to immediately stimulate consumer
spending, and should have instead been considered as a part of a tax
package later this year, where it might have been offset.
Thanks again for sharing your thoughts with me about the economic
recovery package. I know that Iowans hold many different opinions on this matter, and I sincerely appreciate hearing from you about how to make this
package better. Unfortunately, no recovery package - no matter how big or how well designed - is going to make the severe recession disappear overnight. But I am confident that this bill will slow the downward dynamics and, when combined with other efforts, help to stabilize the economy. Please don't hesitate to contact me again as Congress continues to work to get our economy going again.
Sincerely,
Tom Harkin
United States Senator
TH/zss
Please do not reply to this email. To contact me, please log on to my
website at http://harkin.senate.gov/.
"Pay as you go". Bull! Nobody is paying for this as we go. They are going to print money and all but force allies to buy our soon to be worthless Treasury Bills. This devalues our currency and will cause massive inflation, I predict starting next year. We and our children will pay for this after he and his cohorts have gone.
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