Stimulis

Everybody knows about the Stimulus bill being debated in Congress. Either it's almost a trillion dollars of "investment" in our economy or it's a massive "pork" project to assuage the special interests that got President Obama elected. It all depends on your viewpoint. Me, I have a few questions.<br />n<br />nI understand that the whole idea of this package is to "invest" (by putting it in quotes you ought to know how I feel about this word) in out infrastructure, roads and bridges and such, and to provide tax relief which are going to stimulate our economy and get it going again. So how much money are we going to pour into infrastructure?<br />n<br />n<blockquote><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/27/AR2009012703655.html?wpisrc=newsletter">The bill to be voted on today includes $30 billion for roads and bridges, $9 billion for public transit and $1 billion for inter-city rail — less than 5 percent of the package's total spending.</a></blockquote><br />n<br />nLess than 5 percent is going to what we could consider traditional infrastructure projects. This really doesn't sound like much of an "investment" to me. This little drop of money probably explains why the largest maker of construction equipment, Caterpillar, <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99864385">recently announced</a> massive lay-offs, 20,000 jobs. It knew that the little drop of money for infrastructure wasn't going to make a difference in its long range plans.<br />n<br />n<blockquote><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/27/AR2009012703655.html?wpisrc=newsletter">"They keep comparing this to Eisenhower, but he proposed a $500 billion highway system, and they're going to put $30 billion" in roads and bridges, he said. "How farcical can you be? Give me a break." </a></blockquote><br />n<br />nSo, to really help we want to get this money into the economy, right?<br />n<br />n<blockquote><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/28/AR2009012800196.html">The president directly challenged GOP critics who say the proposed legislation would not inject money into the economy for many years.<br />n<br />n"Most of the money we're investing as part of this plan will get out the door immediately and go directly to job-creation, generating or saving 3 to 4 million new jobs," he said. </a></blockquote><br />n<br />nI can understand this. So, how much is injected into the economy "immediately" like the President says?<br />n<br />n<blockquote><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/28/AR2009012800196.html">After Democrats initially estimated the plan would cost $825 billion, the Congressional Budget Office announced this week its total cost would come to $816 billion, with about 65 percent of those funds spent by September 2010.</a></blockquote><br />n<br />nSo I guess two thirds of the money, out the door in a year and a half is what someone, not me, calls "immediately." I would call that a fairly long time if the goal is to save jobs now, not somewhere in the distant future.<br />n<br />nAs for any Tax cuts in this bill, what little information I can find appears to be a one time rebate to people and a one year patch for the Alternative Minimum Tax provision. Now we tried the tax rebate last year and it didn't seem to help very much so why would we expect this one to do any more? I don't see how it will. Then, why not fix the AMT problem permanently, instead of patching it for one year? Wouldn't that make a little more sense?<br />n<br />nWhy not give people and businesses real, permanent tax cuts to help stimulate the economy. Think about these quotes and guess who said them.<br />n<br />n<blockquote>"It is a paradoxical truth that tax rates are too high and tax revenues are too low and the soundest way to raise the revenues in the long run is to cut the rates now … Cutting taxes now is not to incur a budget deficit, but to achieve the more prosperous, expanding economy which can bring a budget surplus."</blockquote><br />n<br />n<blockquote>"Lower rates of taxation will stimulate economic activity and so raise the levels of personal and corporate income as to yield within a few years an increased – not a reduced – flow of revenues to the federal government."</blockquote><br />n<br />n<blockquote>"It is no contradiction – the most important single thing we can do to stimulate investment in today's economy is to raise consumption by major reduction of individual income tax rates."</blockquote><br />n<br />n<blockquote>"Our present tax system … exerts too heavy a drag on growth … It reduces the financial incentives for personal effort, investment, and risk-taking … The present tax load … distorts economic judgments and channels an undue amount of energy into efforts to avoid tax liabilities."</blockquote><br />n<br />nSo, any guesses who said these things? <a href="http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=39517">President John F. Kennedy</a>. Yes, the Democrats favourite past president felt cutting taxes would stimulate real growth and that is what we need today, real growth. Not politicians deciding which industries to throw money at, like health care or alternative energy. But real men and Women, making choices of their own, with their own money, according to what the market is demanding. Not what lobbyist convince politicians that we need, "for the public good."<br />n<br />nI don't know, I'm tired of this whole thing. The <s>idiots</s> people of the US have decided they want President Obama guiding them so we are going to get what we deserve and there ain't a damn thing I can do about it. I see the policies of the President and Congressional Democrats are going to not help the recession out, but actually hurt us in the long run. I truly hope I'm wrong, but I don't think I am. <br />n<br />nOne last thing, if the Republicans were in charge right now, they would be doing just as poor of job trying to fix this problem. All both parties know how to do is "Tax and Spend" and that is only going to make the situation we are in worse. I hope you all enjoy the ride, I'm sure not.