Editor’s Note
Back in the old days — that’s less than a decade and before there were such things as blogs and interactive conversations with readers — editors used to respond to their newspaper readers with an “editor’s note.” Sometimes it clarified a point made in a letter to the editor. Sometimes it offered a correction. Sometimes it was just a simple explanation. An editor’s note was a handful of sentences; maybe a four or five paragraphs. It was always a personal link between the editor and the reader. Only difference between it and today’s blog is the immediacy and the platform. Welcome to Editor’s Note.

Time to smack the House Dems

February 4th, 2009 at 12:08pm Linda Grist Cunningham

When (not if) the Obama economic recovery and reinvestment package get the final nod from Congress, there’s going to be plenty of fodder to grumble about. Anyone with half a brain knows that it’s going to be larded up with expensive trinkets, if for no other reason than in legislation this expansive something is bound to sneak by.

Right now, I am hoping that President Obama and his former fellows in the Senate have the smarts and the clout to send the goofy House Democrats back to their sandbox with a couple of boards upside their heads. What started out as a reasonable plan during Obama’s pre-election campaigning, ended up with goofy Democrats trying to make up for lost time. Stories this week look like Obama and senators like Illinois’ DickDurbin are getting out the smacking boards.

I’m glad there is cash in the package to extend and/or increase unemployment benefits and food stamps. Those two things are going to be what separates this depression from the Great One, and what minimizes the “hobos on the rail cars” stories. But, this ain’t the time to fund Planned Parenthood, though I’d likely support that battle at another time.

Some puffed-up pork is going to be in the final version. I am, for now, keeping my fingers crossed that the president and his senators can be more responsible than the embarrassingly grabby House Democrats. They ought to be ashamed of themselves.

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1 Comment Add your own

  • 1. Egyas  |  February 4th, 2009 at 1:15 pm

    I agree Linda, some head smacking is in order. As a conservative (and one who believes in dramatically reducing the federal government, not expanding it) I disagree with many of the items they put in this “stimulus” package.

    Our “leaders” in DC should be working on a package that will actually stimulate the economy, not just dramatically expanding government spending.

    Many of the pork-filled items in this bill are social programs, and changes related to “social spending”. These do not stimulate a sagging economy. I will not debate the merits of these items, but let us accept that many of these are priorities for many of the Dems in power at the moment. Fine. I just wish that they would have the stones to try and get them through HONESTLY.

    Work together on your stimulus bill if you must and get it through. Then send your social programs on their own. Let Congress (which the Dems basically own right now) vote on them on their own merits. Or are they afraid that if they don’t try to push it through hidden under the skirts of another bill they will not get their social dreams answered?

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