Obama’s public spending plan

Re “Obama expects harder times,” Nov. 8

President-elect Barack Obama’s massive plan for public works spending is a sign of political pragmatism: helping those who complain the loudest now, without regard for anyone else.

Those other people who will be harmed by increased government spending -- employers who could have had more employees (now working for the government), producing goods that could have existed (supplanted by unnecessary bridges to nowhere), bought with additional money that could have been in the pockets of consumers (now taxed to pay for these jobs) -- will be the ones complaining tomorrow.

Brian Tinker

Stow, Ohio

::

During the Great Depression, some in the Hoover administration refused to believe there were people starving in America. It took the vigilance of photojournalists like Arthur Rothstein and Dorothea Lange to expose that terrible situation to those in power.

Our president-elect today has the frankness to tell us that our economic problems are “going to get much worse before they get better.”

As CEOs demand bonuses while their employees get downsized, one can only hope that their vast wealth is channeled in part toward delivering food to our food banks.

We are all aware of the movement that would demonize such action as “socialism,” the works of “do-gooders” and “liberals.” I hope, in this case, that movement will be ignored in its entirety.

Dennis Kostecki

Mammoth Lakes