Recovery.gov... use it

We've been given a tool of oversight. We'll never know if it works unless we use it.

We'll also never know if our representatives, mayors and governors are making use of the money being allotted to us by this economic stimulus package if we don't pay attention and demand it.

We may have to demand our slice of this pie; especially those of us who live in GOP strongholds (or former GOP strongholds.) Will Indiana governor Mitch Daniels (R) make use of our share of this stimulus? Will he even accept it? I don't trust that man any farther than I can throw him. I'll be watching closely.

The GOP seems determined to make this economic stimulus plan fail. In the process, the American people will suffer terribly, our economy may collapse, and our nation may be plunged into a depression from which there is no escape.

Yes, it appears they would let this happen to their country before allowing a Democratic president achieve success. Their partisanship knows no bounds. Well, except for a few Republicans who seem to grasp the severity of our situation.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger:

"When people need to have roads built, when we talk about infrastructure in America, we need $1.7 trillion to $2 trillion of infrastructure in America. Who cares if you're a Republican or Democrat? Everyone is using the roads. Everyone would use high-speed rail. Everyone uses the infrastructure and all of those things, the schools, the kids. It doesn't matter," he said.

"The horrible thing about politics is that, the more they attack each other, the more that they try to derail each other, the worse it is for the people. That's why ... you know, you've got to go beyond just the principles. You've got to go and say, 'What is right for the country right now?'" Schwarzenegger said.

A New York Times Editorial lays it out even more directly:

Imagine yourself jobless and struggling to feed your family while the governor of your state threatens to reject tens of millions of dollars in federal aid earmarked for the unemployed. That is precisely what is happening in poverty-ridden states like Louisiana and Mississippi where Republican governors are threatening to turn away federal aid rather than expand access to unemployment insurance programs in ways that many other states did a long time ago.

What makes these bad decisions worse is that they are little more than political posturing by rising Republican stars, like Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana and Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina. This behavior reinforces the disturbing conclusion that the Republican Party seems more interested in ideological warfare than in working on policies that get the country back on track.

It is useless explaining to these pouting - or posturing - Republicans that their obstructionist behavior amounts to, at the very least, a serious breach of patriotism. More realistically, many in the GOP are demonstrating an outright betrayal of their pledge to serve the people.

Republicans aren't serving the people's interest if they stand in the way of legislation that will help us keep our homes, jobs and get affordable health care. There is simply no way to spin this that doesn't make them look like heartless, selfish, partisan politicians.

What we need right now are leaders. The rest can shut up and sit down -- the election is over, and we don't want to hear anything they have to say unless it is about helping our nation and suffering people recover. They certainly had their chance - they blew it on an epic scale.

This stimulus is only going to be successful if we all get behind it and push for it. Demand it. Insist on it. Lean on our congressmen and senators - weekly, if necessary. Remind them that their only hope for re-election depends on cooperation, and that we're watching them right now, and we WILL remember how they voted when our interests were on the line.

Recovery.gov... check it out.