Letters to the Editor
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Yes!
Give me a rebate check--I will spend the HECK out of it!
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Great
The challenge for Congress now is to see if it can learn from the mistakes and duplicate the successes.
So what you're saying is... we're screwed.
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Not rich
Our combined income is about $60,000 - far, far, far from rich. But we did what the rich did with the last rebate - invested it in our IRAs.
We won't say "no" to another rebate check now, but once again we will not be spending it on "stuff" we don't need. Others will have to do all that stimulating on their own.
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Really?
Today, the Bush administration has been cagey about whether it's going to push for making its cherished tax cuts a part of a new fiscal stimulus package. To do so would likely kill any chance of a deal being cut with the Democratic majority in Congress.
What is it about the track record of the current Democratic majority that makes anyone feel the Bush administration would have a hard time getting what it wants out of them?
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Fiscal stimulus while maintaining the empire
A Fed chairman acknowledges that "fiscal action could be helpful, in principle". Well, will wonders never cease! You mean the prescription for an economy hung-over from a Fed induced housing bubble isn't more easy loans? Low interest rates starting to take too great a toll on the now humble dollar? Bernanke getting nervous about the Saudis moving to the Euro? Will this bring 'fiscal policy' back from the dead? Of course, if the government hands out more rebates and that simply adds more debt to the Federal ledger, that much more of future taxes will be paid out in interest payments to the foreign lenders who are indirectly underwriting these stimulus packages.
A modest proposal: Let's stop throwing money down the rat-hole in Iraq and that giant corporate welfare state known as the 'military industrial complex' that absorbs more American tax money than every other nation on the planet spends on defense - combined. Then we can borrow less from the Chinese and the Saudis to finance this 'stimulus package'. Pie-in-the-sky radicalism, I know, but can we at least think about it?
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Shopping/buying
Throw money at a quick short fix when we need real job creation and FDR style rebuilding our infrastructure that will create real good paying American jobs that will help the economy more than throwing some money so that people can buy some crap at Target and give Wall Street another false V curve. How disgusting.
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Bush will hold the rebate hostage ...
Yesterday Bush flabergasted everyone by proposing rebates of $800 and $1,600 for individuals and married couples respectively. Every body expected much less and it to be in tax breaks for business.
I have two theories.
The first is that Bush will hold these large tax breaks out to force the Democrats to make His larger tax cuts permanent. People will be clamoring for these checks and the Dems may well capitulate to the pressure.
My second theory is that Bush is worrried about his legacy and thinks he can buy some poll points and maybe even help his felllow Republicans save a seat or two come November and fat rebate checks couldn't hurt.
I'm leaning toward the first theory. It might get very ugly, but when has that ever bothered his highness.
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mortgages, student loans
I agree with Stellaa that job creation is a better way to spend the money. I think the cliche "give a man a fish, teach a man to fish" needs to be taken to the next level, where that guy who learned how to fish can then buy a boat, having that much broader an impact on the economy.
It seems fairly recent that students who graduate from colleges come out with crippling student loans and, at the same time, we have the lending organizations making amazing profits. Higher education was previously largely subsidized, but now there seems to have been some major policy shift to force the middle class (and poor) to bear the burden of their own education so that they can then compete for jobs serving the wealthy. Perhaps the tax money is being diverted to military adventures (again, serving interests of the wealthiest, while the real cost is paid by the poor and middle class who actually get killed).
If markets were more local, it might matter that most of the population gets the short end of the stick--people who went to college and work real jobs still can't afford both an education and a car-- but the markets are global. And, besides, if you are in the business of lending money, it's probably just as well that they system keeps people in debt. It seems like I read about this in high school history class--how the landowner would rent land to the sharecroppers, but force them to buy seed and supplies on credit, and at the end of the year, the sharecroppers were somehow always in debt.
People talk about how the USA is killing off its middle class (calling it "Brazilification"). Well, it doesn't hurt the wealthy at all if this happens. The only thing that would stop it is a major political action. The New Deal only happened because the rich were terrified that, if they didn't do something, the USA would go communist. I'm not saying communism is the way to go, but you gotta scare the wealthy if you want results.
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Make the Rebates Permanent
If the paltry one-time rebate checks of 2001 had a stimulating effect on the economy, then the obvious strategy should be permanent tax cuts at the bottom of the economic ladder.
Raise the exemption to $50,000 per household, for starters. Watch the economy buzz! Demand will soar. Job will be created almost overnight.
And due to the trickle-up reality of all things monetary, the rich will continue to become richer. The difference is that evceryone will prosper, not just the rich.
Reinstate taxation at the top, where it belongs. Reduce or eliminate it at the bottom, where it strangles demand.
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seriously, fix a bridge or two
I'm with thornwolf and stellaa on this one. We have a city that needs rebuilding, infrastructure everywhere thats falling apart, and god knows what else going on that the newspapers haven't gotten to our attention yet... And we're sending all our tax dollars to Iraq and Halliburton. I'm not saying Iraq doesn't need our help to rebuild since we're the ones that broke everything. But, sweet jesus, they could spread it around a bit?!?!?! A 300$ check won't go nearly as far as a slew of new construction jobs to fix some roads and bridges and the city of New Orleans. Lets see, groceries for a month, or groceries for the next two years plus rent and everything else..... Bernanke had a bit of a slow start, but I'm inclined to cut him a little slack as he was an academic for so long, this call for congressional action was appropriate and clearly non-partisan.