This is written in rebuttal to U.S. Rep. Elton Gallegly’s Sept. 24 guest opinion, “Our country needs jobs.” Yes, Congressman Gallegly, on this we can agree.

The reasons that need is so palpable is where we diverge.

You talk about the stimulus bill failing because “government cannot create jobs.” You then refer to “only $1.5 billion distributed for infrastructure projects.”

How much of the stimulus money have you lobbied for, for Ventura County? Why does the GOP block distribution of stimulus funds?

I suspect you fear it will work to create jobs. The stimulus bill is around 4 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). The GOP is screeching about this.

I’ve heard many spout about how FDR’s New Deal didn’t work. No, it was the war that got us out of the Depression.

The cost of WW II was about 16 percent of GDP. I guess this stimulus bill isn’t nearly big enough––especially if you and the rest of the Republicans in Congress don’t get out of the way and let job creation proceed.

The stimulus package you supported was to cut taxes. A friend of mine, a small business owner, hasn’t made much money since the summer of ’08. How will lowering his taxes do anything for him or anyone else? Nothing from nothing is nothing.

You mention more job-killing bills and refer to cap and trade. The study you cite by Science Applications International Corporation is hardly from an independent source. In 1990, SAIC was indicted and pleaded guilty to 10 felony counts of fraud on a Superfund site, called “one of the largest cases of environmental fraud” in Los Angeles history, according to the Center for Public Integrity, and reported in the March 2007 edition of Vanity Fair . Clark J. Sullivan Thousand Oaks