Reid should’ve gotten more

People are frantically trying to come up with ways to make the economy better. All those economic machinations around the country are affecting us in Nevada, as well. And with all that is going on in the world today, it looks as if people are already beginning to question President Barack Obama’s “solutions” to the many crises.

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With the stimulus package having just been passed, it is fun to see how Nevada is handling the situation. Billions of dollars are being passed around and shoved in one direction or another, and it’s hard to keep up. It seems as though our representatives are treating this money as if it is nothing more than Monopoly money. The $787 billion economic stimulus package was signed into law on Feb. 17 by President Obama, and Nevada is expected to get $1.5 billion of it.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that Nevada will be getting $270 million in transportation funds, which is only $2,369 per unemployed worker. This is the worst return per unemployed worker in the nation. Nebraska—with less than half the unemployment rate that Nevada has—is getting $278 million, which equates to $7,644 per unemployed worker. Many people say that Reid should have pushed for more money for Nevada.

Reid’s response to this allegation is simply that Republican leaders “don’t know what they are talking about.” Well, it seems as though Reid is covering his own back, because numbers don’t lie. If this stimulus package is meant to help those who really need it, then why didn’t Reid fight for more money to come to Nevada? We should at least benefit from this bill as much as other states do. Nevada is hurting more than most states in the nation, and yet per unemployed worker, we are getting less money than most other states.

This could mean several things, but it only means one thing to me: Reid is just not doing his job properly by forcefully representing Nevada’s best interests. For as powerful as Reid supposedly is, his influence should have helped Nevada out more than it did.

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People are protesting Reid in Nevada, but across the nation, people are questioning President Obama. The students in Mesa, Ariz., where Obama’s speech on the stimulus package was given, commented in the area’s local newspaper, the East Valley Tribune, on where they think the country is going. One student, a high school senior by the name of Syna Daudfar, said, “Overall I think it’s a good idea, but he’s not addressing the issues of the economic crisis. The spending bill he just passed is just progressing the Democratic agenda rather than addressing the economic issues in the country.”

It is almost comical that a senior in high school could so succinctly get to the bottom line on such a widely debated topic. Another student by the name of Maaike Albach brought up the idea that this plan depends on the individual not to make stupid decisions—which is one of the things that got this country in this mess in the first place.

High school students can look at this situation with some sense of logic and reasoning, while Congress simply pushes money around hoping it will land where it should go. It is Congress that lacks a sense of understanding and logic, yet these are the people we voted into office to help us. It seems we can have more faith in the nation’s youth than we can in our elected officials.

All I have to say is, watch out folks, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.