Barney Frank has a warning for us.  We need to spend money at the national level to alleviate problems at the local level.  Frank appeared on "Meet the Press" and had this to say:

“I’ll be flying out of here to New Bedford, Massachusetts , where they are about to lay off cops and firefighters. That’s the wasteful spending that my colleagues are talking about – money that goes to the states to stop them from laying off cops and firefighters,” Frank said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”.

“Those are jobs. There seems to be this notion that if you hire someone to do something useful, then somehow it becomes social spending that doesn’t count.”

     No sane person would want to see police officers or firefighters lose their jobs.  They deal with life-threatening situations on a daily basis. keep us safe and improve our quality of life.  Mr. Frank makes it seem that federal spending is necessary for these men and women to keep their jobs, but it isn't.  Cities and towns need to make cuts in areas that aren't as important.  Sure, they'll be criticized by some citizens, but those tough decisions are  part of their job. 

     The solution to our current problems shouldn't be solved by excessive spending.  This type of thinking on federal, state, local, and personal levels are partially what brought about our current problems.  Sending cities and towns federal dollars is nothing but a band-aid that will push the tough decisions off to the next budget year.  Will Mr. Frank and his colleagues push for yet another stimulus when this happens?  Tough decisions need to be made rather than waiting for federal tax dollars to bailout our cities and towns.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20090208/pl_politico/18551_1