3 involved men

There are 3 men, currently, who are very involved with the current negotiations for the economic stimulus and this administration whose approaches are very different.

Two are very similar while the third is very different in their approaches.

It seems that Senator John Cornyn (R., Tx) and Represetative John Boehner (R., OH) both have a "Jones", so to speak, to grandstand and oppose things from the Democrats.

It's not like it's a surprise it's just frustrating.

Rep. Boehner seems to really enjoy the limelight, as much and frequently as possible. I get the sense he isn't sure what he likes more--his own photo on paper or footage of himself on television.

Both Cornyn and Boehner seem to want to block progress just to be blocking progress.

The thing is, we're in one heck of an ugly financial mess right now and we need to put politics aside, unfortunately for these two men, and work for solutions.

It's very unfortunate for them because in the first place, the Republican leadership in the past 8 years got us to where we are today and, as I said here earlier, if we get the solutions we do need--as we should--now, with this Democratic President, the Republicans run the risk of being out of power for many years to come.

A large legacy of screw-ups from the Bush years, followed by success in Obama years will doom them for a long time to come, certainly. (And here's hoping).

Republicans, right now, keep saying we need to put in more tax cuts into the stimulus package and not just spending.

Well, they handed out their tax cuts during the just-left Bush administration--only it was to the very wealthy of the country. Also, we have debt out the wazoo. How do you lower taxes further when we can't pay for what we already get? (But that's another column: tax cuts vs. insanely large spending--neither of which we can afford).

The fact is, we need to solve these very large problems because so many people's lives and livelihoods are at stake now. People have already lost their life savings or their jobs, due to this banking, economic mess.

It's not a time for stalling and blocking. It's a time for solutions.

The third person I mentioned is one Bill Perkins, from Houston, Texas.

Have you seen the large ads Mr. Perkins has run in newspapers either mocking Washington or just asking where the trillions of dollars in bailouts went in the last few months?

They're huge.

And frequent.

He's paying big money to ask these questions.

And I think they need to be asked.

And answered.

It seeemed, for a while there, that no one in Washington wanted to even ASK where the money for the first 1/2 of the bank's bailout went, let alone give Americans answers.

So here's to Mr. Perkins--thank you from the rest of us.

We'd like to know where this boondoggle has gone, too.

Who knows? We might avoid throwing away many more millions--or even billions--of taxpaid dollars, all in a supposed attempt to "kickstart the economy."