Posters around the Lower Hudson Valley are not overly impressed with the economic aid Sen. Charles Schumer, D-NY, was telling New York it would receive. With billions slated to go toward education for special needs students and low-income districts, and Medicaid, people were wondering where the aid is for regular middle-class Americans who are losing their jobs and feel especially squeezed in this high-tax, high-expense region.

They are also cynical about what they see as pork-barrel padding of the stimulus package for pet projects and causes for Democratic lawmakers.

Unfortunately, this type of stimulus is not going to produce the results that a capital-intensive program would provide. After WWI, the allies infused money into defeated Germany. The Germans built schools, sports stadiums, hospitals and other laudable, but non-income producing entities and the rest was history – monumental inflation. Here, due to politics as usual, the liberals want the mass of sheep to think this spending will work – it will not and we will be further down the road to ruin.

Two years of help. Great. Then what? Rockland will need many years of help with our growing Medicaid problem that has nothing to do with the state of the economy.

This is not a stimulus. Stimulus dollars given back to the taxpayers would be more effective. Wouldn’t it be more effective if the taxpayer like me had more money in my pocket to make purchases? The school system and Medicaid are clearly not properly managed. They already get my money through my taxes, which are raised every year. Why does everyone seem to feel that throwing more money into these institutions will generate revenue and stimulate the economy?