This was a letter I found that was sent to the Augusta Georgia newspaper.

I’m still waiting to hear what those are. Would that include smaller government, an idea that escaped the attention of presidents Reagan and the two Bushes? A commitment to balance the budget, which was not of interest with either Reagan or George W. Bush? Keeping the government out of the private lives of the people, which is a foreign idea to the religious extremists, the base of the party?

Or would it be to forget those less fortunate, or just downright unlucky, to be laid off when there are no jobs to be found? Or to assume the market can get along just fine without government oversight, and that we will recover if we just leave it to business to do its magic and to rely primarily on debunked trickle down from tax cuts? Anyone care to say what the Republican Party is or should be all about in the 21st century?

This crisis, without doubt the worst since the Great Depression in the 1930s, already has put millions out of work this past year, and getting worse by the month. All have lost any health coverage they had and many will become homeless without help. Even if we do our best to recover, it is likely to take years to get unemployment back under 5 percent. We need not only a stimulus to get people back to work, but we need to look to rebuild our shredded safety net, to help those who, through no fault of their own, are now living on temporary unemployment benefits and food stamps. If the GOP is so averse to the resulting deficit, how about them supporting increases in the taxes on the wealthy?

I say, shame on our Republican Congress for denying the need for help for those losing everything, seeming to think stimulus alone is enough.

Some excellent points made in the letter.