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Our nation is in trouble. Unemployment rates are climbing, people are watching their savings 
disappear and all of us are worried about what comes next. That’s why Idaho families, workers, businesses and local governments should get what they have asked for from the U.S. Congress: smart investments to create new jobs and put people back to work. I do not believe that the largest spending bill in U.S. history is the most effective way to do that. That’s why I voted against the American Recovery and Investment Act, otherwise known as the stimulus bill. What began with a tight focus on job creation and infrastructure improvements ballooned into a ‘something for everything’ spending proposal. And it will saddle our nation with economic burdens which could be just as onerous as the one we are wearing now/U.S. Rep. Walt Minnick. More here (pdf).
D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.
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idawa on February 03 at 1:50 p.m.
I accept Minnick’s reservation about the bill. I think most people would have liked a tighter bill more focused on investment and direct job creation. The harm though, is in the speed in which the markets needs this bill approved. Unfortunately, the market is just a pool of expectations that have been flavored with the expectation of a government stimulus. Many sectors of the economy are waiting on their hands and the longer they wait deeper this trough may become.