Kate Stear – 11/21/08

This page was last updated on November 22, 2008.

Aid middle class to restart economy; Kate Stear; Beaver County Times; November 21, 2008.

A previous letter from Ms. Stear was equally upbeat.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“Middle-class Americans have been carrying the weight of this country’s issues on their shoulders for a long time.”

[RWC] So have whom Ms. Stear below refers to as “the rich.”

“Our government has borrowed money from other countries to give us stimulus checks. Taxpayers will pay that loan.

“Our government has lowered gas prices in order to place more money in consumers’ pockets so that we may spend it elsewhere and jump start our economy. It didn’t work.”

[RWC] “Our government has lowered gas prices?” Where does Ms. Stear get her news? The marketplace “lowered gas prices,” not “our government.”

“Our government has bailed out big businesses with billions of dollars when they have no one to blame but themselves. Its executives then took posh vacations.

“Our government is helping banks, credit-card companies and insurance companies, and it gives breaks to all those who are about to lose their homes due no one’s fault but their own and their own lack of responsibility.

“The rich have loopholes. What do honest, hardworking, taxpaying, middle-class Americans ever get? Nothing. Nothing but the bill and headaches worrying over the mess everyone else has gotten us into because of greed.”

[RWC] “The rich have loopholes?” What are they? “The rich” pay far more in taxes than “middle-class Americans.”

“If our government wants to hand out money —which in the end, no matter where it goes, will be on taxpayers anyway — it should be giving it to middle-class America.

“Want to fix the financial mess our country is in?

“Give all middle-class Americans each $200,000. That will jump start the economy.”

[RWC] I’ll give Ms. Stear the benefit of the doubt and assume she isn’t serious.