Stimulus Package

Economists are calling on Washington to create yet another stimulus package. Bush previously said, "No" to the idea, but something has changed his mind and now he wants one.

Well, I can't imagine this being a good idea. Let's just put our deficit even higher. Our government all ready owes everyone and their brother money. The bailout has cost every American citizen $3,100 and now, they want to pass a $150 billion bill. How is this going to help? Maybe, we just need the economy to suck for a while. It'll come back, let's just sit, wait and see what happens.

If anything should pass, it should be to give states enough money to cover unemployment. I heard that Wisconsin is running out of money. Also, it should be to help the 7.5% of Americans who are or will be unemployed find training in other fields.

Side note: My mother keeps insisting the economy is chugging along and everything is fine. One of the things she says proves this is our unemployment rate. Right now, it's lower than 7.5% and it is lower than it was in the seventies, so things are okay. Well, I don't know a lot about the seventies, but I know now if you're unemployed and not on the unemployment roll, you're not being counted. If you are still employed, but looking for a full time job, you're counted as unemployed. If you took a job way below where you were before, you're not being counted, but you're not making your full pre-firing, pre-laid off wage. None of these are good for the economy. Another thing that isn't good was the high gas prices.

Now, if they are going to send sums home to people, let's send more than a lousy $600.00 per individual. Cheryl and I normally spend more than $1800 on Christmas between gifts, wrapping paper, Christmas Eve dinner and charitable donations, but not this year. We're cutting way back this year. We haven't been able to put money into our savings accounts like previous years due to various reasons -- the least of which included the high gas prices -- and we're going to need to use the Christmas fund to pay our home taxes. Now, I'm not complaining, we both have jobs, things are just tighter than normal. We'll get through it, just as many of Americans will.

But, the only way for the economy to bounce back is we need to put money into it. So, here's my suggestion -- partially stolen from Lewis Black -- let's build something, anything. Let's put money into our intrastucture. Let's improve our roads, let's update our railroads. If we're going to spend $150 billion dollars, let's use it to create jobs. How about create an energy company, solely owned by the government, that will research fossil fuel alternatives? What about a company that will invent a better running car? Something, anything that will create jobs. And, let's take a look at the hardest hit areas of the nations and put in training centers. Let's train our unemployed and underemployed for different jobs. Not only would we employ people as trainers, but we'll make our un and under employed citizens ready for the next jobs in their lives.

How can we pay for this?

Well, let's stop substizing oil companies and large farms (not family farms, the big guys) and I'm sure there's other things as well. Let's rollback the tax breaks on the upper 1%. We all know taxes have to be raised, so let's just get it over with. Hell, I'd chip in a little more in taxes to pay for something that benefits all.

But, it'll never happen.

So, if they do pass the stimulus, I hope it's enough money so we can buy some really nice Christmas presents.

God Bless

Again with the Economy

Perhaps, I'm missing something. I'm reading this week's Time magazine and they've included a voter's guide to Obama and McCain's plans for the economy. Under Obama's plan, he would end Bush's tax cuts for families making more than $250,000 (with which I agree), raise the capital gains tax and give tax credits to singles and families. McCain wants to make Bush's tax cuts permanent (which I oppose), reduce the corporate tax (as I mentioned last week) and here's a new one -- "He may be open to the possibility of a higher Social Security payroll tax." What does that mean?
8% of my salary goes to Social Security. Is he going to raise that? And, with that raise, is he going to guarntee that Social Security will be there when I retire? Or, is he going to lift the cap, so that those earning more than $92,000 a year pay on their whole salary? I would support lifting the cap.
Think about it. If you make $50,000 per year, you pay Social Security on that whole amount. That comes to $4,000 or 8%. If you make $100,000 a year, you pay only on $92,000, which comes to $7,360 or 7.36% of your salary. So, percentage wise, the person who earns less pays more than the person who earns the most. Does that seem fair to you?

God Bless

It's Still the Economy

John McCain wants to cut corporate taxes by 10% -- taking the corporate tax rate down from 35% to 25%. He believes this will convince companies not to go off shore for workers. It'll keep them here. Too bad he's wrong.
Publicly traded companies care about one thing -- their stock prices. Giving them a tax cut won't guarantee any company will keep jobs here, especially if it'll make their stock price go up to locate jobs overseas.
McCain, also, wants to take the burden of insurance off the backs of our corporations and have individuals pay for it themselves. He's really working the business side of things, isn't he? He believes that we'll keep prices down if we have to pay for the insurance ourselves. He wants to give a tax credit to us, so we'll buy our own insurance. ($2500 for singles, $5000 for families)
That'll work.
You know what will happen? People will buy the insurance and those with a lot of money will buy the good insurance. The insurance that'll cover everything and they'll stay off the public rolls when a serious illness comes along -- most likely. People with middle incomes will buy middle cost insurance. They'll risk losing their homes if a serious illness comes along. And, the people at the bottom of the income levels will buy exactly the amount the credit covers and when it isn't enough to cover their needs, we'll all be supporting them.
McCain, also, wants to make the Bush Tax Cuts permament. Well, that'll help those on top and leave nothing for the others on the bottom.
Here's an idea:
Instead of just granting businesses a huge tax cut, give them the credits. For each single employee, give the employer a $2500 credit to help offset the cost of insuring them. Give a $5000 tax credit to ensure an employee and their dependents. That would ease company's burdens -- limit the tax credit to only Americans working in America. Place a cap on how many overseas employees a company can have to keep the credit.
Don't make the Bush cuts permament -- restructure the income tax tables. Right now, it's 10%,15%,25% and 33%. Let's keep the top spot and rearrange the others. We need 20% and 30% brackets. If I had more time this morning, I'd tell you why.
Well, it's off to work for me. I'm still reading on Barack Obama's ideas for the economy and I'm sure I'll have something to say about them, too.

God Bless