We the People, Need a Real Economic Stimulus Plan

President George W. Bush sent a message to Congress that he wants them to pass an economic stimulus package - a package that shows the same short-sighted vision of America that corporate CEOs practice - immediate gains within a single quarter. Is that economic leadership? No. Will Congress produce anything else? Unlikely, since they fear a lame duck veto.

What has been set before Congress is a plan to put a few hundred dollars in our pockets so we can buy the last gee-whiz gizmo being produced by laborers working in conditions banned in the United States nearly a century ago. A real plan would should show a commitment that our government will stand behind us to safeguard our rights to life, liberty and our pursuit of happiness as promised in our Declaration of Independence.

This is not a plan, it is a late Christmas present from our government - for which we will all pay.

An economic stimulus package should look out 5, 10, even 20 years - not next week.

A plan for our economy should look at means of ending the vicious multi-generational cycle of poverty that grips a large portion of our society, not with bandages and handouts, but a hand up and out. An economic stimulus plan would end the insanity of permanently punishing people convicted of crimes, leaving them in poverty for their entire lives.

An economic stimulus plan would not permit millions of Americans to fear they will be homeless within the next year, and would punish the financial institutions that placed people in such precarious financial straits.

An economic stimulus plan needs to provide for the education of our best and brightest, whether it be in the various skilled trades, the arts, the sciences, or in engineering, regardless of their ability to pay for that education.

An economic stimulus plan should encompass a comprehensive set of goals for creating jobs for people in the high-paying manufacturing sector, not look at how to make the rich richer and make the multi-national corporations happy.