I recently received a letter from our Representative, Raul Labrador, regarding President Obama's second "jobs" bill. Labrador wrote: "The fact of the matter is the President does not know how to create jobs. If he did, he would not have waited for three years before starting the process."

Either Representative Labrador is unbelievably ignorant about the first stimulus bill that the Republicans worked hard to block, or he is trying to deceive American citizens by misrepresenting President Obama, and misrepresenting the effectiveness of the first stimulus bill - which virtually all honest economists agree WAS successful. But the first bill was not enough to get our economy out of the deep hole that President Bush and the Republicans dug for us over the last decade.

The fact is that the Republicans are blocking effective jobs creation and blocking tax cuts for working Americans in order to protect unfair tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires. If you are a working American, or a retired American benefiting from Social Security and/or Medicare, and you believe that the Republicans are on your side - you have been deceived. For a reality based view of how the first jobs bill worked see: http://www.flickr.com/photos/davecjohnson/6088811219/

JUSTIN STORMOGIPSON, M.D.

Coeur d'Alene