Reply #22: +1. Seriously. I mean, it's a nice gesture to write checks to individuals. [View All]

No, really - it's a very sweet, kind thing to do. I don't doubt that Obama is a good man with a warm heart.

But infrastructure repair and a WPA-style jobs act directed toward full employment of all citizens would be much more effective in the long run if his goal is alleviating, or even temporarily relieving poverty. I don't doubt that he cares about American citizens, unlike Bush and every Repub leader - I just think there are better ways of manifesting that care.

If the Administration's focus, from the beginning, had been directed toward unemployment and financial system reform, the president wouldn't have had to take that money out of his own account. The Dems in congress (not just him) had the power to make something happen in 2009 and utterly squandered that opportunity.

Again - this is a nice gesture, but it amounts to putting a band-aid on a gunshot wound to the heart.