Listener, “Susan,” has provided us with an annotated (her observations are in red) copy of Senator Jim Webb’s response to her inquiry regarding Webb’s support of the massive, pork-laden stimulus bill.
After digesting it, the best I can say about this letter is, at least he replied…
February 26, 2009
Dear Ms. __________:
Thank you for contacting my office regarding the ongoing economic crisis and the federal government’s response.+ I appreciate your taking the time to share your concerns with me.
The United States is facing an economic crisis that is causing American families to fall behind.+ Communities are being hard hit by home foreclosures, failing businesses, and job losses that are almost unprecedented in recent history.+ As your U.S. Senator, I am committed to supporting policies that will help end the economic crisis and will help restore basic fairness+ (not gov’ts job!!) for all Americans.
It is for this reason that I supported the bi-partisan+ (Huh??+ No Republican input except for 3 RINO’s is bipartisan??) American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (H.R. 1). This economic recovery package is designed to swiftly drive money into our struggling economy. With help for struggling families, meaningful tax cuts+ (I don’t call $8 or $13/week meaningful, and it’s not really a cut, but a subsidy that increases your income that you will pay “tax” on next year!!) and concentrated funding on key infrastructure programs, I am hopeful that this responsibly-crafted legislation will create millions of new jobs and begin immediately to restore America’s economic strength.
As one of those who were concerned with many aspects of the original proposal, I was pleased to work with colleagues from both sides of the aisle+ (Sorry, in my mind three RINO’s don’t count!) to put this plan into place within a set of targeted parameters for economic renewal. My Senate colleagues and I focused on programs to help families struggling under today’s serious economic downturn, on shovel-ready infrastructure and public works projects, and on addressing the housing crisis. I am pleased that we were able to remove almost $100 billion in spending from the original proposal (Keep going and get rid of the rest of the pork!!) .
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act also contains tax cuts for families and businesses, provisions to help unemployed Americans keep their health care and find new employment, and provides aid to help the most vulnerable. While this legislation is an important step, other measures must be adopted to restore the health of our economy. These include appropriate reforms of our banking and financial systems, tax fairness (i.e. soak the “rich” and even they don’t make enough to pay for your massive greed!), and measures to place the nation on a long-term path to fiscal responsibility+ (they don’t know the meaning of the word!).
I appreciate hearing from my constituents.+ Your correspondence helps me serve you better in the Senate. I hope that you will continue to share your views with me and my staff in the years ahead.I would also invite you to visit my website at www.webb.senate.gov for regular updates about my activities and positions on matters that are important to Virginia and our nation.
Thank you once again for contacting my office.
Sincerely,
Jim Webb
United States SenatorJW:OPM
A great example of hot air. How is the government creating new jobs? By funding shovel-ready projects. If the projects are already shovel-ready then the locality already had the money in place to hire the workers to do the project. The project was already funded. So the federal government is creating the same jobs that the localities were a few days from creating. The jobs don’t get created twice. It will be interesting to see how many government agencies willl take credit for creating the same jobs.