No matter what Republicans may say, this package is tax cut heavy and infrastructure light. The tax cuts are way too risky to get our economy rolling again, but infrastructure is the answer. Republicans argue that there are not enough projects out there that would be ready to go quick enough to get the money into the economy fast enough. Are you kidding me? Are you telling me that the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis was the only bridge in our country on the brink of failure? Are you telling me that the roads in our country, the crumbling roads are not in need of repair? Are you telling me that are aging electrical grid is just fine the way it is? Are you telling me that our deteriorating sewer systems, which release more than 860 billion gallons of partially treated sewage into our rivers and streams, are not in need of repair? Are you telling me that our water systems, which leak unimaginable amounts of water each day, are not in need of repair? In the United States of America, people are afraid, sometimes, to drink out of their own water taps. I would expect this behavior in Mexico, not in the United States. Because of this lack of trust in our water systems, the bottled water industry has taken over, with no amount of oversight or accountability.
If we just began to scratch the surface of the list of things that need done in this country, not only would we improve our quality of life, our safety, and in some cases, our health, but we would put millions of people back to work. That is something the Republicans don't understand, their tax cuts would only affect those Americans that are already working, but would do little to nothing in actually putting people back to work. Also, a report from the United States Conference of Mayors, estimates that every dollar spent on waste water infrastructure generates a return of three to seven dollars that flows directly back into the economy. Also, the Commerce Department estimates for each job created in the water and sewer industry, 3.68 jobs are created in all other industries, so there is a huge ripple effect. It is also indicated that nearly 20 billion of shovel ready infrastructure projects await financing today. So, the next time you start to get angry about how big the stimulus is, why don't you write your Republican Senator, and ask them to remove these ill-advised tax cuts, and replace them with real, infrastructure spending, to put people back to work, remember, we are only working on 16 percent of what we could be.
Banking execs finally get what was coming to them
As I recently wrote about on The Left Wing Liberal Show, Wall Street executives received $18 billion in bonuses in 2008. This completely got me fired up. I don't even pay income taxes yet, and I was outraged. All I could think about were the millions of Americans out there who saw that on their T.V.'s, who may have lost their jobs, are facing foreclosure, and are about to lose all of their life-long dreams because of the greed of the people on Wall Street, and then they found out that their tax dollars were being used to give out bonuses to these same people. These executives were being rewarded for FAILURE! Well, they finally go what was coming to them. President Obama announced yesterday that any institution that received or may receive TARP funds, will have to limit their executive's pay to $500,000 a year. Now this was a step in the right direction. Although Senators McCaskill and Sanders pushed for a $400,000 limit, which I agree with, because I think that the president should be the highest paid official when it comes to public money. But there also has to be some more lines drawn in the sand for this to satisfy many people, including me. I think that he should rephrase his order to include all people working at these institutions, not just executives. We should know by know these people are greedy and live in their ouwn worlds with their own rules. They can easily change their title, not be an executive, and make $2.3 million. Also, I believe it should be cleared up that bonuses should count as part of their income.
Now, don't get me wrong, I believe in rewarding these people for their hard work in getting these positions, but not when they are being rewarded with public funds, and especially when they are being rewarded for their own greed, and failure.
Thank You, God Bless you, and God Bless the United States of America.
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