All this talk about stimulus plans is making me crazy. I hate to be so cynical (not really - but it does not feel 100 percent right sharing it with you), but using the words “federal government” and “solution” in the same sentence makes me suspicious.

All this talk about stimulus plans is making me crazy. I hate to be so cynical (not really - but it does not feel 100 percent right sharing it with you), but using the words “federal government” and “solution” in the same sentence makes me suspicious.

Look at all the options and none of them seem to hold a helluva lot of promise for really turning our economy around. The banking, housing, and auto industries are in a mess, but if everyone would just take a deep breath (granted … it may be for a few years), these fine institutions would straighten themselves out.

Consider the downside(s) of using tax dollars to stimulate the economy. Worst thing to me is the continuing devaluation of our currency. We just keep on printing it and its value just keeps going down. It is a vicious cycle and it is certainly not new, but who thinks this can go on forever? I think there is another bubble out there and it may be the good ol’ American greenback.

How about who is going to pay for this? If the economy comes roaring back the tax base will rise and take care of some of it. The economy will come back anyway. Why run up the already insane tab while running down the value of our dollars?

How about all this talk of “infrastructure improvements”? Many contractors groups I hear from are all over this one. Yes, we need to continuously improve our roads and sewers, but it will have very little to do with this economy. Throw in a bunch of lobbying of congressmen, a few wild parties and junkets, then a few years of engineering, and then some people will go to work rebuilding our infrastructure. Sounds like it will take a few years anyway, so why throw crazy dollars at it that our grandkids will have to pay back?

How about talk of giving our fine citizens some more money like we did in 2008? Well, we did it in 2008 and here we are. Get the picture? Politicians need to say something I guess, but come on. Give people money now and they will reduce debt and save the rest. Or they will purchase products made in another country. Don’t get me wrong, we should be concerned about the global economy of which we are a part, but we should be mostly concerned about right here.

All this talk about stimulating the economy and creating jobs with no talk about the group who create all the jobs in this country: SMALL BUSINESS. If the federal government would give small businesspeople a break (roofing contractors would be a good example) and get off their backs and let them do their work, maybe the economy will emerge a little faster.

But mark my words … it WILL come back and it WILL NOT come back because of what the feds do. It will come back based on the hard work of you and me.