Dear President Obama
JoeUser Forums
Dear President Obama:
I am a Demoncrat. I voted for you. I believed that you were sincere in your message of 'change we can believe in' and felt you offered a needed and welcome change from the politics as usual that Washington seems so fond of. And after the economy became the primary issue, I especially supported your message of personal responsibility.
I am writing to tell you that I am bitterly disappointed in what you are doing.
This Stimulus Package that you have just signed is a perfect example of how you have turned your back on the very things you promised us. What happened to your promise to go through things line by line? Did you even read this bill in its entirety? Where was the promise of eliminating wasteful government spending? My understanding is that this bill, to a large extent, hands money to various governmental agencies without any real plan (let alone a checks and balance system) for what is done with the funds. How much more wasteful could government spending be (aside from giving more money to failing businesses)? And I'm pretty sure you promised to get rid of pork barreling, but it seems to me that that's what the majority of this bill is. This is a continuation of politics as usual, Mr. President, as this bill embodies partisan politics at its worst: After 8 years as the minority, the Democrats saw their chance to fund pet projects and that's what your Stimulus Plan became, despite whatever you intended. Had you lived up to your promise to go through it line by line, had you eliminated wasteful spending and pork barrel proposals, then we might have ended up with a real plan that would move us towards recovery a bit sooner. Instead, we have thrown good money after bad, funding those things that Democrats feel will help with their re-election efforts. And when things improve, as they inevitably will no matter what action is taken, the Democrats will be happy to take credit for that, even though it would have happened anyway and this incredibly irresponsible spending probably prolonged the crisis.
Times are tough, Mr. President, even for people like us who have done everything right. But you are sending a terrible message, especially to our children, by offering bailouts to those who have done everything wrong. This is the direct opposite of encouraging personal responsibility; instead you are encouraging greed and irresponsibility by eliminating the consequences. I can't believe that those are the values you are imparting to your girls, so why would you reward others for behaviour you wouldn't allow in your own home? We have never been in debt, mortgage aside. We have never carried a balance on a credit card. We have never lived beyond our means. But even though we are the ones the mortgage company can rely on, the only way we can get a better deal on our mortgage is by NOT paying it. Does that make sense? Shouldn't we be the ones who are rewarded for doing the right thing? Shouldn't the reliable people be the ones who are encouraged to continue doing the right thing, instead of being told that the only way to get ahead is to do the exact things that got us into this mess? And on a larger scale, isn't this what we're telling businesses as well? It's the small businesses, who did everything right and are trying desparately to hang on, that are going to fail, while we continue to bolster the giants who might benefit more from having to deal with the reality of their mistakes. Yes, letting them fail will cause unemployment which will have a ripple effect. But perhaps your Stimulus Bill could have addressed that aspect more comprehensively (rather than funding extraneous, unrelated items) so that restructuring our economy, which will happen no matter what you do and is necessary, could occur sooner rather than later, and before we waste billions of dollars trying to forestall the inevitable.
Mr. President, I truly want you to succeed. I think that you have so much to offer our country and I hope that you fulfill the promise that so many see in you. But I am so distraught over your first steps, for my own family and for our country. Please keep sight of the changes you promised to enact--now more than ever is the time to fulfill those promises.
Stardock Forums
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