Kudos to our Senators?

To the editor:
    Congress recently passed a $787 billion spending bill designed to pull the United States out of an economic downturn equaled only by the Great Depression. Thanks to the support given by Senators Snowe, Collins, and Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter, the Democratic majority were able to pass the bill despite resistance from the GOP.  On the surface, it seems noble and well-intended; after all, who wouldn’t want to help people keep their homes and their livelihoods? Shouldn’t we praise our Senators, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, for having the courage to break ranks with their party and pass legislation that will have America singing ”Happy Days are Here Again” before the snow melts?
    Well, that depends.
    First of all, it depends on whether or not our Senators actually read the bill, approximately 1,100 pages of dry, utilitarian lawyer-language. Just getting through the first draft of the bank bailout was a stretch for me, and that was only five pages long. Slogging through a thousand pages of vague legalese in only a week or two is itself a mighty achievement, but comprehending the entire bill in time for the vote is a feat worthy of epic poetry. In order to read the bill in a 40-hour work week, one would have to read 220 pages a day, about the equivalent of a good-sized John Grisham novel. If our hard-working Senators sat down and read the entire bill, they deserve effusive praise. I would hate to think that a person entrusted with safeguarding our liberty would cast a vote on a bill they hadn’t read.
    It also depends on whether they really believe borrowing vast sums of money from China is a good idea, since it was vast sums of borrowed money that caused the economy to collapse in the first place. Our Senators have already borrowed billions to ensure that millionaire bankers receive their annual bonuses, so perhaps the vaunted “middle class tax break” included in the bill is a way of balancing the scale. After all, who wouldn’t want the extra four hundred dollars a year our Senators fought so tenaciously for? Of course, you won’t see the 400 all at once, but 15 extra dollars a paycheck can really add up if one is judicious. Fifteen extra dollars is almost guaranteed to take the sting out of watching the national debt go up another two trillion. With the price of gas slowly inching higher, those fifteen extra dollars will certainly come in handy.
    Finally it depends on whether our two Senators actually believe that saddling the next generation with crushing debt in exchange for some short-term economic damage control is a prudent thing to do. Congress has already handed out money to incompetent bankers and incompetent car manufacturers. Perhaps, since the taxpayers are third on the list, that makes us the least incompetent group. It’s good to know that our Senators have such a high opinion of us. Fifteen dollars a paycheck is quite a burden, but I have confidence that we’ll make wise choices. After all, we elected quality people to lead us.
Michael LaReaux
Danforth