Friends and fellow truth-seekers

This morning when I got up to take my dogs to the back yard at 5:30, I checked my email and found a message from MoveOn about demonstrations today against the Bush/Paulson plan to reward corporations for their greed and incompetence by giving them another seven hundred billion dollars to dump down the drain, and decided to join the demonstration. That's when this idea of an alternate way of using the $700,000,000,000 came to me, and I forwarded the MoveOn message to a bunch of my music friends suggesting they join the demonstration and explaining to them my idea for an alternative use of all the big bucks. The idea was still demanding further action, so I called the offices of Ellen Tauscher, my representative in Congress; Barbara Lee (whom I wish were my member of Congress), Nancy Pelosi, and Senator Barbara Boxer. This took the edge off my compulsion, so I went back to bed for another couple of hours of sleep, but woke up with the compulsion demanding more action, so I wrote the following description of my alternative and sent it to Senator Obama's campaign office. I hope it makes sense to you, and that you will forward it to as many people as you can.


Arm Barack Obama with the best alternative for saving the economy:

The best way to fight the Bush/Paulson giveaway is an obviously better, more sensible, more compassionate alternative. If we can afford to invest seven hundred billion dollars to save the economy, we should do so in a way that will actually bring that about, by investing the money in things which will actually help the economy and even save the stock market: Spend the money on

A. rebuilding the nation's infrastructure, the highways and bridges and mass transit systems

B. on green projects such as wind and solar power generation and retooling the American auto industry for manufacturing electric cars or helping existing electric car manufacturers to expand exponentially

C. on instituting the reforms called for in the new veterans' bill of rights and on other compassionate projects such as assistance for the handicapped and subsidizing Habitat for Humanity

Adopting this counter proposal and linking it to a rapid conclusion of the war in Iraq to stop that drain on the economy would not only save the economy but dramatically demonstrate the Democratic Party's superiority to the Grand Old Poop-heads.

If Senator Obama should introduce this alternative proposal--and challenge McCain to debate the relative virtues of the two approaches on Friday night, imagine the consequences. I am not proposing this merely as a campaign gesture, of course, but as an obviously, transparently superior way of healing the economy.

Charles Kratz