guest opinion
Tester: A Common Sense Agenda for Middle Class Prosperity
By Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., Guest Writer, 10-09-08
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Everywhere I’ve been over the last few weeks, hundreds of folks have gone out of their way on Main Streets in Montana to talk with me about the economy.
I believe it is a problem that needs a fundamental fix from the ground up instead of the top down.
That’s why I believe we need a new agenda that focuses on rebuilding our infrastructure, improving education and health care, and making our country energy secure.
Right now we need to invest in infrastructure that has been neglected for far too long. We need to put hardworking folks back on the job building roads, bridges, water and sewer systems, and railroad and power lines. Good infrastructure lays the foundation for broad-based economic growth and prosperity that’s shared by all who put in their fair share of sweat.
Montana’s cities, small towns and frontier communities desperately need investment for our future. If we invest now in infrastructure, our young people will have a bright future here at home and won’t have to leave Montana to find new opportunities.
To provide our young people with the skills they need to succeed in the 21st Century, we need to invest in human infrastructure—education. Building good schools and attracting and retaining good teachers now will pay handsome dividends in the years to come and build a first class workforce our small businesses need to succeed. The federal government also plays a critical role in funding basic research that constantly drives the technology industries that create some of the best-paying jobs in Montana.
Too many families in Montana can’t afford to get sick and can’t afford health care for their children. Congress tried to invest in family health care by passing the Children’s Health Insurance Program, but the President vetoed the bill. Middle class families need us to make another effort to get this problem solved, so basic health care doesn’t take such a big bite out of the budgets of families struggling to make ends meet.
And finally, we can’t lose focus on making our country energy secure. We have all the resources needed to keep our economy fueled with American-made energy. We need to invest in clean coal technology and renewable energy like wind, solar, geothermal and biomass fuels, starting right here in Montana. It’s time to stop borrowing money from China to pay for fuel from unfriendly countries in the Middle East. And we’ll create good-paying jobs right here at home.
As a third-generation family farmer, I believe it’s time for some smart investing that rebuilds our economy by putting the Middle Class first. We need to do it following the example of millions of working families—using fiscal discipline, hard work, and common sense.
Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., is a third-generation farmer from Big Sandy. He serves on the Senate Banking Committee.
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Comments
We need someone with common sense and who has worked for a living in charge.
That's why I have a Palin 2012 sticker on my car. Common sense conservatism.
Andy ~ the flood of foreclosures is the result of buyers buying more than the could afford from slick salesmen. If the government doesn't let the real estate market find its bottom the recovery will take much longer. How are your wages going to go up if Obama taxes your employer more, something will have to give and it may be your job. Who do you want main street flooded with cash ~ welfare? I guess you want the government to create better government jobs with the money the government extorts out of your employer. Maybe soon you will be able to ad WPA or CCC to your resume.
problembear ~ There isn't a job shortage, evidentially there are 12 million jobs that Americans won't do, maybe we ought to reconsider that. Damn it, we might have to become carpenters again.
You see, I am against socialism and democrats have become socialists.
You can blame Bush for everything if you want but if you don't dig into the problem you may not be able to find the solution, we need to dig to let our legislators know we aren’t sleep walkers. The problem is most of us are sleepwalkers to busy watching reality TV that we don’t see the reality of our world.
I have had my problems with Bush for some time also because he is not a conservative. After all The Bush education plan was written by Edward Kennedy, his prescription drug plan is a socialistic Lyndon Johnson like boondoggle, his effort to drill in ANWR for the oil we need seems a little limp wristed, and federalizing airport security borders on insanity and he wants 12 million illegal aliens here to compete with us for the remaining carpentry jobs. His latest boost to Obama’s socialist agenda by nationalizing the banks isn’t helpful either. We are being screwed by them all.
Here's the political catch. Obama’s Tax Credits even if you have no income-tax liability. In other words, they are an income transfer -- a federal check -- from taxpayers to nontaxpayers. Once upon a time we called this "welfare," <a >Obama's genius </a> is to call it a tax cut.
http://daryl-l-hunter.blogspot.com/2008/10/john-mccains-federal-housing-enterprise.html
Matt,
conservative = disposition in politics to preserve what is established b: a political philosophy based on tradition and social stability, stressing established institutions, and preferring gradual development to abrupt change ; specifically : such a philosophy calling for lower taxes, limited government regulation of business and investing, a strong national defense, and individual financial responsibility for personal needs (as retirement income or health-care coverage)
This sounds more commons sense than electing a socialist that plans to turn the whole system upside down.
It is sad that my 9 and 12 year old boys will not have the America I did because we voted for socialism.
We are certainly going to get what we as for aren't we?
i can't wait to see mccain sidle up to the voters today like a new york street con artist and open his rain coat to show us his new shipment of Obama idea knock-offs. just like lhis mavericky change lie he stole months ago, mccain has to borrow obama's save the economy ideas so that the bankrupt GOP think tank can try to put a phony mccain label on them to try to stem the tide of voters who recognize the real thing. so i guess big tax breaks for millionaires and ceo's wasn't the way to go after all huh daryl? so now we are expected to believe that suddenly mccain is all for helping to save the middle class? funny how losing changes a battle plan real quick. i am sticking with the real genuine candidate who has always been for the middle class- obama.
not the new improved knock-off mccain.
I guess you didn't watch the videos of barney frank on the link I put up earlier, watch those and tell me its all bush's fault. After you read this by the liberal New York Times written in 1999 two years before Bush took office.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0DE7DB153EF933A0575AC0A96F958260
McCain is so far left that I wasn't going to be able to vote for him until he put Palin on the ticket. He is a bad choice but not nearly as bad as the avowed socialist that hangs out with people that have killed our own citizens by their domestic terror. (bill ayers).
How metaphorically existential your user name is, problem bears in Yellowstone are freeloaders as are America’s socialist bourgeoisie.
True conservatism (Bush isn't one) creates good economies and self-sufficient people.
Excuse me but it seems to me that if you want to tax the rich more it is because you must hope to be a beneficiary. 2+2=?
I have never had a job that a poor person provided for me I drive a city bus for a living, I barely get by but I do. I used to drive a dump truck but my rheumatoid arthritis will not let me do that work any more. I want the pharmaceutical companies to stay profitable so they can come up with a cure for me.
I grew up on welfare and although it kept us from starving it taught most of my siblings to be lazy slugs, that is what government hand outs do.
I have lived a life that has provided plenty of anecdotes to point out the failure of our socialism programs. We can’t fund Social Security or Medicare because they are unsustainable Ponzi schemes yet democrats want to pile onto the problem with socialized medicine. I did a national debt study in 1999 and to pile more entitlements onto it is insanity.
Granted, intentions are good but results are always poor, Clinton, Frank and Dodd making banks lend to people that couldn’t pay a market rate mortgage for instance.
My debt study http://www.free-press.biz/usa/national-debt.htm
My SSI study http://www.free-press.biz/usa/ssi-trust-fund.htm
I carry conservative water because it is MY WATER and if I carry it well my progeny may have a prosperous country to inherit. That is the only thing in it for me. Problem bear, do you have any kids?
Since I no longer work construction my week is no longer 50 to sixty hours, it is only forty then I go to work for myself doing freelance photography (The Hole Picture) and work on my Yellowstone website (The Greater Yellowstone Resource Guide) then I might throw my two cents worth in blogging here, or on (Daryl L. Hunter – Perspective) or (Citizens For a Freer America), Yep I’m just a lazy slug.
Problem bear, Metaphorical observation isn’t all I have, I have provided plenty for you to read but you chose not to because it conflicts with your world view.
i will just say this. i watched my father, an equally honorable man go to his grave poor and with the worst of health care thanks to bush and his conservative bunch of thieves who steal from the poor to make the rich richer. he served in WWll and he and many other veterans were treated like a piece of dirt by the conservative republican controlled congress and president whom my father staunchly supported. i have seen too much hypocrisy by republicans to stomach the lies anymore. good luck to you and yours, daryl. but here's wishing very bad luck to mccain and the rich who support him.