Senator Baucus and Senator Tester,

I understand my opinion is largely irrelevant to how you will vote regarding the stimulus package Mr. Baucus helped to craft, you are both Democrats, after all.  That stated, because of where you sit, you get to hear from me anyway.

I believe my small business was a casualty of the current economic slowdown, our sales started to crater around September of last year, and we closed in December.  This enterprise wasn’t our only source of income, so we are fortunate in that respect.  We are facing substantial personal losses though, but again, that is fairly irrelevant.  My wife and I will do what we have always done, and what most Montanans would do; we’ll put on the gloves and get to work digging ourselves out of the position we put ourselves into.  This brings me to the proposed Economic Recovery Package you are considering.

It appears to me that this package borrows money from our children and our children’s children to pay for our own mistakes.  I understand it is important to get our economy back on track so our descendants have the opportunities that we have had.  I can even understand some spending on infrastructure as a part of a larger package of tax cuts.  The biggest problem that I’ve seen in this proposal, though, is that the allocation of infrastructure spending is quite small as a percentage of the overall package, as are the tax cuts (which are also excessively redistributive in nature).

I know my positions are likely philosophically disparate from your own beliefs, and that’s just the way it is; your ideology prevailed in the latest election.  On the other hand, it  is sorely disappointing to see the inclusion of so much in this proposal that is ancillary to actual economic stimulus.  If our kids money is going to be used to try to bail us out of all of this, please, let’s be much more mindful of where it is going.  It’s not money you or I have earned; it is a chain around the necks of our progeny, all for the betterment of our own comfort.

Self discipline is never easy, especially when the money we’re spending isn’t ours.  We in Montana, however, pride ourselves on our independence.  If we’re going to pass this bill at all, let’s at least bring a heavy load of that independence to bear upon it and spare future generations from paying for our frivolity.