Answers needed on stimulus claims

The Gazette's Feb. 21 editorial was a fairly superficial treatment of the stimulus spending that became law last year. Left unaddressed was the fact it is the second stimulus bill - remember TARP?

More importantly, you assert that “Stimulus spending has so far reportedly funded more than 9,000 jobs in this state.” You do not identify the source of this number or how it was determined. Neither do you identify where these jobs are located (public or private); are they are all in Des Moines or equally distributed around the state? Do they represent full-time or part-time workers, are they entry level or skilled labor jobs, are they knowledge workers, etc.

Regular readers can only hope you will address these interesting questions soon.

David Pearson

Marion