Stick to intent of stimulus plan

President Obama asked Congress to enact a stimulus bill that would allocate $825 billion to rebuild infrastructure such as bridges, roads, schools, etc. not only because that work needs to be done, but even more important that 3 million unemployed Americans would be employed to do this work, earning incomes that they would then spend to get the economy moving again. However, the bills written by our U.S. Representatives and Senators are loaded with other spending that has nothing to do with infrastructure and job creation. The $819 billion House bill passed anyway without any Republican support, but the Senate's $900 billion version is headed for defeat because Republican senators recognize that it is not written to help infrastructure, unemployment, nor the economy. The minority party plays an important part in keeping the work of the Congress balanced and on task.

Spending that much money on pet projects of legislators will not help our economic recovery and deserves defeat. Spending that much money for any purpose would increase our national debt since government securities would need to be sold to raise the money; anyone and any country can buy those Treasury bonds, etc. and we would be in debt to them without our economy benefiting at all. If Obama's idea is worthy, and it may be at this difficult time, our legislators must stick to the intent of his plan.

Donald B. Abbs

Elgin