During these hard economic times, our Legislature's priority should be to decrease government spending dramatically. President Obama's "stimulus" plan will create more government jobs and take more money from productive people.

The term "stimulus" is a euphemism. More accurate words are "redistribution" or "socialism." The stimulus plan has an overlooked effect: The money to pay for it comes from taxes, and taxes hurt the economy. The only way for the stimulus projects to improve the economy is if the government knew better than you about how to spend your money. It wastes money like teenagers exceeding their cell phone minutes — they keep using minutes they don't have, hoping their parents won't notice. But the bill shows up and parents (taxpayers) pay even more for an irresponsible teenager (government).

Yes, the free market is having a difficult time, but is installing socialist ideas the solution? The stimulus project might help people get jobs in the short term, but future generations will end up paying the bill.

We should not repeat history from the Great Depression, when the government kept spending money it didn't have. When will we open a history book and not repeat the same mistakes?

Reach Janae Rasmussen at (Unknown address).