Rossputin.com Rational Thinking About Our World

Dear Senators Udall and Bennett,

I am contacting you to urge you in the strongest possible way to oppose the current "stimulus" bill or anything vaguely resembling it.

The bill will not stimulate the economy. It will saddle my 3-year old daughter and 1-year old son with an even higher mountain of debt for the rest of their lives.

You and I would probably not agree on much in terms of economic policy. You probably enjoy the idea of the permanent enlargement of government which is the clear primary goal of this bill, despite it's "stimulus" cover story.

But at a time of national economic crisis, you have a duty to Colorado and the nation to act in good faith for the economy and not for the benefit of your party, unions, or favored liberal industries and interest groups.

If you want to support all those things, do it later, in the clear and politically disinfecting light of day, not under cover of a so-called "stimulus" bill and during a time of substantial confusion among the electorate.

At the end of the day, supporting this bill by claiming it is "stimulus" is dishonest. And while I may not agree with you gentlemen frequently on policy matters, I do think you are honest men (all prejudices against politicians aside.)

On a purely political note, I believe any rational economist (which means not Robert Reich or Paul Krugman) will tell you that this bill is simply burning money, at least in economic terms. (I realize that it may buy a lot of votes in political terms.) When it fails, at it must, to stimulate the economy, the Democrats' losses will reverse most or all of your gains in the last two elections, particularly if the Senate Republicans are smart enough to leave Senate Democrats holding the bag as the House Republicans did to Nancy Pelosi and friends. (Sadly, I don't think Senate Republicans are as smart as House Republicans.)

For the sake of my children's economic future, and in order to maintain some hope that they can reach a higher standard of living than I have, just as we reached higher than our parents, I urge you to oppose S. 1 and anything like it that might come out of a conference.