Today we have a guest post by Dave Hunt of Tipton. Dave is a retired educator and former Iowa Teacher of the Year.

Republicans won’t admit it but the 2009 Obama stimulus plan created and saved 3 million jobs and had the stimulus been larger or if the Republicans had not obstructed a second stimulus plan, millions more would be employed today. Even while they were blocking the second stimulus, Republican legislators were requesting stimulus money for their districts. Paul Ryan wrote two letters of request saying they would generate growth and create jobs

The same level of cynicism and hypocrisy followed the “Tea Party” takeover of Congress in 2010. After campaigning on “jobs, jobs, jobs” it has now been two years without a jobs bill introduced in the House and the Republicans killed the Democratic jobs bill as well as Obama’s jobs bill which would have employed millions more. Their “new plan” of cutting taxes and regulations is the same as George Bush tried in 2001 which led to a loss of 2.8 million jobs in 2008.

Republicans would like you to believe taxes have gone up though with the payroll tax reduction, the middle class received their biggest tax reduction in a generation. This was part of the Democratic stimulus plan they opposed and proved to be an efficient way to get money in the hands of working Americans.

With the greatest concentration of wealth in the hands of so few in our history and in spite of so many wealthy Americans recognizing they must pay more to be part of our debt solution and economic recovery, some misguided local letter writers insist on defending the continuation of low taxes on the wealthy. So where are the jobs if this record concentration of wealth is so good? The rate on taxes for the wealthy is now 50% of what it was during the 50s and 60s when our economy was booming and our deficits were low.

The average working American earns $50,000 and pays 25% in income taxes plus 6.7% in payroll taxes in addition to state taxes. They also pay sales tax and property tax out of this $50,000. In contrast Mitt Romney made 20 million dollars and paid 14% in capital gains. Guess which tax the Romney/Ryan plan wants to reduce to 0%? And they won’t tell us how they’ll pay for another 20% income tax cut for the rich. What are they hiding?

Don’t forget we still don’t know what is in Romney’s tax returns for the last 10 years; Paul Ryan had to submit 10 years to run for VP. What is Romney hiding?

Disabled veterans, seniors on Social Security, low income workers, college students, the disabled and active military are all included in Romney’s 47% about whom he said “they will never take responsibility for their lives” This was our glimpse at the real Romney. And not to be outdone, 2nd District Republican candidate, John Archer, raised the ante by saying “50% of the American population believes they are entitled to a government handout”, disparaging even further millions of proud Americans.

We need to vote for Obama and the Democrats who have demonstrated they will work for all Americans because we still are under a government “of the people, by the people and FOR the people”.