Dear Mr. President

"The job market in rural Idaho doesn't exist. Up here, we're near the Canadian border, and it's freezing cold. But when you drive by the bus stop, you see people waiting with no winter jacket on. They just can't afford it because they've lost their jobs.

I'm a manager of a lumber-reload business, and we're looking at shutting it down. My husband is self-employed, but he's struggling, too.

I can't stand hearing about the millions of dollars being used to bail out banks and then reading a story on how the banks don't want to lend money because people have lost their jobs.

Instead of handing the money over to six-figure-salary executives who use it for lavish company retreats, Obama should give each head of household $25,000 to $35,000 so we can bail ourselves out.

If the money were given to the people, they could pay down mortgages or pay off car loans, and that would in turn go to the bank. That would ease people's income loss while also putting the money back into the economy.

I don't know what Obama's full plan is, but it sounds like every other politician. You say all this stuff to get into office, and once you're in, you backpedal. They need to look at the little people, and in my mind, that's not people making $250,000 per year.

Call it a stimulus, call it the people's bailout, call it whatever you want. Just figure out a way for people to keep their houses. Think about the little guys. Even though we have the buying power, we're the ones suffering the most." - as told to Julianne Pepitone

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