Get your facts straight before making up mind

In a recent Bee letter, Mr. Behimer is certainly right to object if he is being labeled a racist for opposing some of our president’s policies. But from wherever he is getting his information, he needs to get his facts straight.

• The president’s stimulus initiative, labeled a “pork package,” has helped revive our economy from a serious depression. It has saved or created more than 30,000 jobs in the first few months of the program, including at least 500 jobs in Idaho. Some $260 million has been awarded to state agencies. Locally, our area’s Dover bridge –badly in need of replacing— is being funded by stimulus money.

• The latest poll shows Americans’ almost evenly divided on the health care proposals now moving through Congress. Support for a public health plan to compete with private insurers to  lower insurance costs now wins a clear majority of support, as does a mandate that all Americans carry health insurance.

• U.S. automakers have been saved from bankruptcy, saving countless jobs, and the banking industry has been rescued from the brink of collapse.

• Other countries have rallied around our foreign policy and nuclear non-proliferation and peace initiatives, and our President has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

• Overall, 57 percent of Americans currently approve of the way Obama is handling his job as President, while 40 percent disapprove. Any idea what those figures were like when President Bush left office?

JAMES W. RAMSEY

Kootenai