Organizing for America | Gail Newtson's Blog: Road to Recovery was an excellent meeting

Road to Recovery was an excellent meeting

By freedom4u_n_me - Feb 7th, 2009 at 11:47 am EST

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Last night I hosted an economic stimulus meeting in West Peoria, IL. I received this email from one of the attendees and with his permission, I'd like to share it with you!He did a much better job summarizing than I could..........and he didn't even take notes! I have made comments throughout this blog adding other opinions that were brought up. Not all of us agreed 100% with every detail. But, unlike the Senate, I'm sure we could have come to a compromise quite easily!! LOL Along with the following info that Harry has shared, as high priorities we discussed community service, education funding and continuing to stay involved, letting our voices be heard and holding our elected officials accountable by sending emails, calling them and watching how they vote!Then spreading the word!
Harry, the author of most of this blog, has great ideas, some of which we'll be sharing with you through events on Obama in the Heart, Peoria, IL. I hope each of you will find something of interest that you would like to be a part of! "Hey All,     Your comments/criticisms/recommendations about the economic stimulus spending and tax cuts can be given at the toll free number 1-888-642-4264 or at whitehouse.gov under 'contact us'. (in my words: share your story, how has this affected you, your family and your community)
    14 people attended the house meeting at Gail and Rick Newton's home in West Peoria last night. Some of the recommendations discussed for changing the stimulus bill included:     Increase spending on solar panels and wind turbines to reduce dependency on the dwindling availability of foreign oil. The current plan to double spending on renewable energy is ridiculously small. The current total energy produced by wind and solar is about 3%, doubling it is about 6%. Raising renewables to 75-90% would make the U.S. energy independent, dramatically stimulate the economy with new jobs and the ability to export renewables. There would be proportionate cost savings, energy security, environmental benefits, reduction of greenhouse gases, climate stability, reduction of the likelihood of oil wars, and the improvement of life for future generations. (in my words: This is a great idea and Harry, the author of this blog, knows a lot about this!!)     Increase infrastructure spending and reduce tax cuts. Economist overwhelmingly agree. Currently 58% is allocated for infrastructure and 42% for tax cuts. It is estimated that for every $1 spent on tax cuts, $1.09 is circulated in the economy, for every $1 spent on infrastructure, $1.59 is circulated in the economy. Even a higher rate is circulated with funding for food stamps and extended unemployment benefits, which republicans want to cut. (in my words: This idea is not a unanimous idea. We would agree with more money for infrastructure but not reducing tax cuts because we feel that the tax cuts will help spur the economy from the bottom up!)     Reduce attempts to be bipartisan at the expense of making irrational, ineffective policy choices to appease entrenched republicans, who are still trying to promote 'trickle down economics' with more tax breaks for the corporations and the wealthy (in 2008 the wealthiest 5% became 7% wealthier while 75% of everyone else lost 7%)." (in my words: some of us disagree with the idea of being too bipartisan, mainly because we trust President Obama's judgement. The worry here, is that this will divide the team and cause needless delays.)
    Financial regulation, transparency, and accountability, which includes imprisonment and heavy fines for unethical misuse or fraudulent use of taxpayer bail out money for financial institutions or corporations." (in my words: most of us are not for imprisonment, but we would like to see more regulation and penalties in the way of reimbursing the government for the ghastly way that some of the corporations have spent their government assistance)     Retroactive financial accountability with fines, imprisonment, and repayment for those who have blatantly misused the first $350 billion in tax payer bail out money that was given to financial institutions and corporations before Obama took office. (in my words again:imprisonmnet is not something we take lightly, as a group, and we don't think that we need more laws and our constitution wouldn't allow this!) Harry" I look forward to being in touch with many of you in the next 4 years.We can make a difference
We can bring change to our communities, our government, our country Thank you all!
Gail/freedom4u_n_meObama in the Heart (please join if you haven't already) http://my.barackobama.com/page/group/ObamaintheHeartPeoriaIL

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