On the eve of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives forging a compromise on the $789 billion economic-stimulus package, Asheville Mayor Terry Bellamy appealed to the Asheville public to engage in another kind of financial stimulus: buying U.S. Savings Bonds.
Bellamy’s pitch came during Asheville City Council’s Tuesday meeting, but earlier that day, she distributed an e-mail urging Asheville residents to invest in the bonds.
“I’ve started a campaign,” she told Council. “Looking at how we dealt with times of need after World War I, World War II and 9/11 — our country bought bonds.”
After the meeting, Bellamy told Xpress that she began researching the idea after hearing anxieties from the community about the long-term effects of the stimulus plan.
“I kept hearing concerns about how much we are spending and borrowing against our future,” she said. She is touting the bonds as a way to invest in the country while realizing a return on that investment down the road.
Expect to hear more on the issue: Bellamy said she plans to push the campaign beyond her Council chamber announcement, and hopes that the movement will build momentum in Asheville, then move into the national conciousness.
The full text of Bellamy’s announcement is below.
— Brian Postelle, staff writer
————————————————————————————
Mayor Terry Bellamy
mayorbellamy@ashevillenc.gov
February 10, 2009
We’ve all asked ourselves lately “What can we do to help in these hard economic times”?
And it seems we’re getting back to basics, realizing what’s important; family, saving money, living within our means, community and pulling together as a nation to make it through these tough times.
Mayor Terry Bellamy is starting a campaign in Asheville that she hopes will spread across the country to help support our nation and our cities. Best of all it is a way to investment in our children’s future while investing in our nation. Just as she has done, Mayor Bellamy is encouraging all of us to buy U.S. Savings Bonds.
Our grandparents bought bonds to support our country in tough times, now we have the opportunity to pull together and help our nation by buying U.S. Savings Bonds. Imagine, if every family bought one bond for their children’s future what that could mean for our nation. If half of the U.S. 112 million families bought one $50 U.S. Savings Bond for $25, it could add up to 140 billion dollars invested into our nation.
Join Mayor Bellamy and re-invest in America and our children!
Let’s Take Back America – U.S. Savings Bonds for Country and Our Children’s Future
EE Bonds are reliable, low-risk government-backed savings products that you can use toward financing education, supplemental retirement income, birthday and graduation gifts, and other special events.
END
If there is one thing that people should learn from this financial crisis, it would be to stay away from toxic debt.
Johnny –
Are you say we should *not* invest in the US government?
What about investing in local bonds of some sort?
When did our community stop having city council members who actually did anything related to the job we elected them for? At what point did we get so out of touch that we let elected officials ignore pressing priorities they are there to address and allow them to pretend they are celebrities and national heroes? How about you stop making new boondogles to waste money on when we have no money to waste.
These people don’t even understand local government and they’re play acting like they are saving the entire nation and playing on a world stage. All this self indulgent behavior and desperate cries for attention from the media are huge insults to the citizens of Asheville who elected them to address city issues.
Enough of this idiotic behavior! We don’t need children playing games with decks of “Blame” cards, or advising us how to invest money to save the country when none of these children could run a lawn service. The day anyone takes financial advice from this Mayor, is the same day they should walk into the cattle entrance of a meat processing plant.
Note to council members: CNN is not going to call you for an interview as a result of these silly attention craving stunts. They will come knocking when you finally get nailed for criminal incompetance, or gross neglect. Do your jobs!
Giving money to the government is not an investment. It’s a bailout for decades of mismanagement and an invitation for more of the same.
The government already forcibly confiscates our wealth through taxation, debt, and inflation and improperly redirects it to areas where it does not belong resulting in net loss of wealth and liberty.
The government cannot create jobs. It can only use coercive force to move wealth from one sector of the economy, where it belongs, to another sector of the economy, where it does not belong, by means of subjective and improper political calculation instead of objective and proper market calculation.
It is government intervention in the economy that has created our economic crisis. And now we should gladly hand over more of our money to these incompetent vultures?
No thanks. We should be asking for our wealth back, not giving it to calculating politicians who do not have your best interest at heart — only maintaining their own lifestyles at your expense.
Jim Rogers on the Crisis
http://snipr.com/bpn6k
Rogers has moved to Singapore. Update your passports.
er .. let’s see …. spend like drunken sailors on a Democrat Cruise and Binge OR actually SAVE! Looks like a disconnect between the Mayor and her One.
The next time travelah makes a reference to Obama being “the One” i am going to go to his house and pee and his shoe. It is idiotic.
I wouldn’t let you in the house. Pee on the bushes like a good comrade.