[Publib] Stimulus Two

[James Casey]

Outraged?  How about a trillion dollars and thousands of lives squandered on a war that was entirely unnecessary and trillions more on tax breaks to the richest one percent of the country?   Taxpayers finished eight years with a gigantic deficit and absolutely nothing to show for it.  While the Obama stimulus will further expand the deficit, it will also provide some equity value to the taxpayers in exchange for the huge expenditure.  Getting tax cut money into the hands of low-moderate income taxpayers and to be used on projects that will actually serve the interest of the public is not a bad deal compared to what we have been sold by the previous administration.

What if libraries have projects sitting “shovel ready” in the event that Federal money is available?  Why shouldn’t the heavily burdened property tax base that already supports school and library operations not receive a bit of help via Federal funds?   Would it not sit better with local taxpayers (who also pay State and Federal taxes) than elaborate plans to have favored companies like Haliburton and Blackwater used those tax dollars to destroy/rebuild Iraq?   I would guess that money spent on library related projects will deliver excellent value for the investment.

James B. Casey – My own views.





From: publib-bounces at webjunction.org [mailto:publib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Backwage at aol.com
Sent: Thursday, February 19, 2009 9:56 AM
To: lknieriem at rogersark.org; publib at webjunction.org
Subject: Re: [Publib] Stimulus Two

In a message dated 2/19/2009 7:38:07 A.M. Pacific Standard Time, lknieriem at rogersark.org writes:
Speaking as a librarian *and* a taxpayer, if my library had spent the tens of thousands of dollars it costs to develop “shovel-ready” plans for constructing new facilities on the off-chance that a huge federal spending program would drop a chunk of change our way to build it, I’d be outraged.
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