We should all be welcoming and praying for President Barack Obama. He is the individual our nation has chosen to lead us during an economically troubled time. Justified concerns have been raised about the proposed plan to mortgage future generations. What the exact number will be, whether it is in the hundreds of billions or trillions of dollars, no one knows. Whether it is truly necessary, I don’t know.

What I do know is that if our Congress and president decide that it must be done, the decisions for its use should come back to the people.

Our government is of the people, by the people and for the people. The inauguration of our new president was a testament to the American people’s belief government is of the people, by the people and for the people. To me the fairest way to invest that money is in the states that are struggling to maintain needed programs and services. The economic shock has taken our state legislature by surprise and taxed all of our resources. Our state needs time to make the needed structural adjustments. Our federal government seems to have no trouble printing more money and spending it. Our state is required to work with a balanced budget. My hope is that we can demonstrate a truly bipartisan effort in an appeal to our president and Congress to surrender to each state administration and oversight of any further bailouts. We do not need to reward certain sectors of our people at the expense of others.

The oversight should be here and not in Washington, D.C. God bless President Barack Obama and our nation!

Paul Ibisch

La Crescent