Today's Outrage: Readers React to Obama Plan

Once again I struck a nerve. Many, many readers felt compelled to write to me after my recent rant about the pundits panning President Barack Obama's housing plan.

I cautioned that something needs to be done because things will only get worse for homeowners and our economy as employees lose their incomes to mounting layoffs by companies from General Electric(GE Quote) to General Motors(GM Quote), from Pfizer(PFE Quote) to Caterpillar(CAT Quote) and from Macy's(M Quote) to US Airways (LCC Quote).

But what really caused a stir was when I said all the naysayers should just shut up because they weren't helping. Many readers took issue with that, saying that public discourse and debate are the heart and soul of our democracy. They are absolutely right.

In my Outrage column, I seek to spark discussion and debate through irony and hyperbole. Do I really want to quash honest debate about how things should be done in this country? Not on your life. My goal is to shake things up and get folks engaged.

So to all who responded -- both the supporters and the denigrators -- I say thank you.

And now to show that I, too, believe in freedom of expression and honest debate, I am publishing a sampling of the reader responses to give you your say.

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None of these spending/stimuless/bailout plans are perfect? Of course they are not perfect. We should not be doing any of them. I'm sorry, but this is, by far, the worst article I have read in quite some time.

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