Wake up and smell the pizza, folks (think for yourselves)

Seems to me there’s a lot of misinformation out there about the stimulus package. As is par for the course, the mainstream media is not doing their jobs. No surprise there; journalists have all but disappeared from MSM Land. Of course, millions of Americans are treated daily to the lies and misinterpretations being bandied about by the likes of scare-tactic pundits Rush Limbaugh and Michelle Malkin (just to name to of so many who play fast and loose with the facts). Have you heard that the package is ’socialist?’ That’s a lie right there.

Then we’re all being treated to a dose of those who have clearly been around for too long, and can’t seem to cast away the legacy of the Bush years. In this category I put crazy John McCain, Mr. Class Act himself - Lindsey Graham, and just plain whiny John Boehner. If you’re listening to this group of mis-informers, I feel pretty confident in stating that you don’t really know the facts about the stimulus package. For example, these three will tell you there was nothing bi-partisan about the bill. Lie. In fact, $70 billion investment is included to protect the wealthier taxpayers from an income tax increase that would otherwise hit them. According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, this piece of the stimulus package will do relatively little to create jobs. Therefore, I would consider that a capitulation.

Another way to look at the stimulus package is not to analyze just what it contains, but to analyze what the GOP - and those Democrats who call themselves ‘conservative’ or ‘centrist’ - have managed to strip out. Perhaps you can see a pattern here. They managed to strip out the one thing that will ensure that the money is not misused. Why? A package this big cries out for that, just as the $700 billion financial bailout did. Plenty of that taxpayer money has already been misused.

As with everything else, I suggest you look at the stimulus bill for yourselves. Forget listening to any one from either party at this point (including me). Go, read and judge for yourselves. I realize that the government web sites are clogged. I’ve tried that myself. ProPublica.org has a very good summary of the package on its site. The link is below and I urge you to use it:

http://www.propublica.org/article/download-the-stimulus-bill-090213#8194

The stimulus package by itself, however, will not be enough. Now, some of you might read this statement and say, “Duh.” However, I propose that you’d be surprised at how few people look at the big picture. The theory that the United States economy is in enough of a collapse that it needs a radical approach is catching fire. So, I urge you to seek out this information and read on, even after the stimulus package has passed. Trusting the government and its participants is foolhardy. Patriotism is no excuse for being too trusting and uninformed. The more informed you are and the more actively you participate in your government, the stronger our country will be.