OT-possible tax rebates for us Americans.

[dopeyfanatic]

This could help our budgets!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080117/ap_on_bi_ge/economy_stimulus

 

[runwad]

Well I for one don't see this as a good thing. On a personal note I'm like yeah free money but at what expense? Adding to the deficit?

 

[chicagodisneyfan]

Ack - this is a terrible idea. The country is in deep debt and truly what is $300 going to do for me? Nothing.

Besides we will ultimately end of paying for it in the end.

 

[disneysteve]

What a horrible idea. Typical of Washington.

"endorsed the idea of putting money into the hands of those who would spend it quickly"

I heard that same thought on the news this morning. They want to get people to spend more money. If that isn't insane I don't know what is. If we are headed for recession and facing higher unemployment, lower interest rates on savings, a declining stock market, higher inflation, etc., the last thing people need to be doing is spending more money. This is a time when folks need to be battening down the hatches, building cash reserves, putting away the credit cards and staying out of the mall.

 

[runwad]

What a horrible idea. Typical of Washington.

"endorsed the idea of putting money into the hands of those who would spend it quickly"

I heard that same thought on the news this morning. They want to get people to spend more money. If that isn't insane I don't know what is. If we are headed for recession and facing higher unemployment, lower interest rates on savings, a declining stock market, higher inflation, etc., the last thing people need to be doing is spending more money. This is a time when folks need to be battening down the hatches, building cash reserves, putting away the credit cards and staying out of the mall.

Yep I totally agree...although I don't remember what happend that made them give us the refund for the child credit that one summer? I forget what year? Had to be after I had DS in 2000. We got $1200 (3kids x $400) and I took it to the credit union and put on my HEL...the teller said are you sure you don't want to keep any of this? I said nope pay that loan down. I imagine if I get some type of refund again I'll just put it in my car savings account. They wont be getting any spending from me

 

[disneysteve]

We got $1200 (3kids x $400) and I took it to the credit union and put on my HEL...They wont be getting any spending from me

Same here. If unexpected money comes in from whatever source, it goes straight to savings. Sorry, Washington, if I'm not doing my part to support the nation's economy. I'm more concerned with MY economy.

 

[dopeyfanatic]

Well you may not want the money, but I do! I can use it to pay more on my car. Or put it in savings...but it's something I'd get to choose. Even if you just pay a bill off with it, that's putting it back in the economy. They tax us enough, so I'll gladly take back some of my money! If you think it would cause such a financial problem for the Country, why would you even cash it to put into savings?

 

[dvcgirl]

What a horrible idea. Typical of Washington.

"endorsed the idea of putting money into the hands of those who would spend it quickly"

I heard that same thought on the news this morning. They want to get people to spend more money. If that isn't insane I don't know what is. If we are headed for recession and facing higher unemployment, lower interest rates on savings, a declining stock market, higher inflation, etc., the last thing people need to be doing is spending more money. This is a time when folks need to be battening down the hatches, building cash reserves, putting away the credit cards and staying out of the mall.

But this is what we have to keep doing Steve.....spend, spend, spend. Actually, it's borrow, borrow, borrow followed by spend, spend, spend. Now the "experts" are crying out to get the Fed to cut rates, to make it cheap to borrow money again, so we can continue to borrow more and more and more and more..... The whole economy is built on debt. When banks slow down on their lending, we come to a screeching halt.

I actually heard the testimony from Bernanke today and all of the questions from House members. I can't tell you how many times it came up that we needed to "get the stimulus money to those who can spend it the fastest". I just shake my head....this is window dressing and nothing more. 100 billion, 150 billion "stimulus" in an economy with 14 Trillion of GDP....a drop in the bucket.

And the *last* thing that this government wants people to do is to take your wise advise to stop spending.....we all need to be out there doing our part for the economy! It's pure insanity. To say we've lost our way in this country would be the understatement of the century.

I think we need to see a few more jobs reports before we see how ugly this thing is going to get, but it sure *feels* ugly right now. Hope I'm wrong, but around here we're "battening down". This monoline insurer stuff really has me spooked. If they fail, boy could we see a drop in the markets.

 

[Schachteles]

When the heck do they want to push this through? Kinda late at this point...and really not a great idea...though I certainly wouldn't mind an extra $1500 in my pocket!!

 

[disneysteve]

They tax us enough, so I'll gladly take back some of my money!

Where do you think these checks are going to come from? Yep, they are coming from taxpayers' money. The only way to support programs like this are to tax you even more. It is a vicious cycle that makes no sense at all. We're going to raise your taxes so we can take some of that money and give it back to you to spend to help keep the economy going. Either that or we will borrow more money so we can send you some and down the line, taxes will have to increase so we can repay that debt. Either way, you lose in the long run.

 

[dvcgirl]

Where do you think these checks are going to come from? Yep, they are coming from taxpayers' money. The only way to support programs like this are to tax you even more. It is a vicious cycle that makes no sense at all. We're going to raise your taxes so we can take some of that money and give it back to you to spend to help keep the economy going. Either that or we will borrow more money so we can send you some and down the line, taxes will have to increase so we can repay that debt. Either way, you lose in the long run.

They'll just add it to the deficit. Not a problem. Now that the dollar is in the toilet, we'll just have to keep our fingers crossed that China, Japan and the Middle East will keep buying our treasuries so we can keep borrowing against them.......

Oh, and I hope that those nations still have several billion more to bail out, errrrr, I mean "invest in" the banks that are failing. Our own government can't make investments in our banks, but I don't think there's any problem with foreign governments investing billions in our banks. Nope, can't see how anything can go wrong there, not at all.

 

[dopeyfanatic]

Are you not thinking of the fact that if the economy does take a dive, people are going to lose jobs, lose pay and there will be LESS taxes being paid? Something like that could take a few years to recover from. This is an attempt to prevent that, so yes I'm all for it. Like I said, if you don't agree with it then don't cash your check if you get one.

 

[Free4Life11]

I don't really care for this idea, however, will *all* individuals get this or just certain groups? If they do decide to do this it's a dumb idea, but if everyone else is getting a check I want one too so I hope it applies to single males!

 

[jenr812]

Yep I totally agree...although I don't remember what happend that made them give us the refund for the child credit that one summer? I forget what year? Had to be after I had DS in 2000. We got $1200 (3kids x $400) and I took it to the credit union and put on my HEL...the teller said are you sure you don't want to keep any of this? I said nope pay that loan down. I imagine if I get some type of refund again I'll just put it in my car savings account. They wont be getting any spending from me

Exactly. I think that a lot of people would use this to pay for existing bills. I know we would. It wouldn't stimulate the economy then.

 

[dvcgirl]

Are you not thinking of the fact that if the economy does take a dive, people are going to lose jobs, lose pay and there will be LESS taxes being paid? Something like that could take a few years to recover from. This is an attempt to prevent that, so yes I'm all for it. Like I said, if you don't agree with it then don't cash your check if you get one.

100 Billion dollar stimulus plan isn't going to prevent any of the above from happening. The sad fact is that we're going to have to go through a certain amount of pain after the excesses of created by the housing/credit bubbles. 50% of the increase in consumer spending over the past five years of incredible GDP growth came from 5 Trillion dollars pulled out of homes in the form of home equity loans and lines of credit. And now "poof", that source of money is gone. 100 billion isn't going to get this economy back on track. Americans are tapped out. Consumer debt at an all time high, national savings at an all-time low, foreclosures at record levels, credit card and auto loan defaults on the rise, and the home equity spigot is turned off. Until Wall Street can engineer the next bubble, Americans may actually have to live within their means for awhile.

 

[Cristy]

I think step one would be for the Federal Gvt. to pay all the military personnel the 3.5% increase in pay that was authorized for them to be started in January, but President Bush vetoed the bill! How can we treat them so badly when we daily ask the supreme sacrifice from them?


The additional money we might get from the Government won't be for new spending <unless it's used to cover the increase in everybody's grocery bill, gasoline and home heating this year>. I don't see new purchases in a splurge atmosphere.

 

[MoniqueU]

Consumer spending is 2/3s of the economy so having people spend money does indeed help the economy. I am sorry there is a debt in washington but right now I am more worried about my families deficit to be honest. I would be happy with the money and even happier to see a tax cut come along so I can decide how to spend my money on healthcare, debt reduction, retirement and other itmes that will make my families life better. I just hope that the 300 bucks goes to the working people that actually pay into the tax system and not people that don't pay taxes. I am tired of the people that work the hardest and have made the most sacrifices to get where they are and better their lot in life paying for those that don't work to get ahead. The top wage earners in our country pay 70 percent of the taxes. I think that is crap. The people that should pay their fare share certainly arnt and I dont believe it is the rich, they are supporting this country.

 

[disneyfreakk]

Oh great, I see my taxes going up. This really makes me angry! Why should I have to pay more so some people can go out and spend this "free money" on things they didnt work for?

What kind of Republican robs from the rich to give to the poor??

 

[speedyf]

I think step one would be for the Federal Gvt. to pay all the military personnel the 3.5% increase in pay that was authorized for them to be started in January, but President Bush vetoed the bill! How can we treat them so badly when we daily ask the supreme sacrifice from them?

What you fail to note is that the military will still be receiving a 3% increase in pay instead of this vetoed bill's 3.5% increase.

The military will probably pick up the addition .5% increase in February after Congress reconvenes and drops the provision in the bill allowing Iraqis to sue the new Iraqi government for damages incurred under the Saddam regime....thus the reason why Bush vetoed the bill in the first place.

(Edited to add...Military actually received the 3% increase as of January 1st and when the kinks are ironed out, the extra .5% will be retroactive back to the 1st....linkage.... http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2007/12/ap_payraisebill_071228/)


Now...I'm not a big Bush supporter by any means. I did vote for him....but, I hope we get someone that is more fiscally conservative in office for the next 4 years. Bush has increased spending way too much. Instead of raising taxes to cut the deficit, why not lower taxes (which has proven to bring in more revenue....more money in the people's pockets means more money for them to spend) and actually CUT GOVERNMENT SPENDING.

Not even CUT....just stop the increases. When the national news comes on TV and talks about the goverment cutting spending on a program...most of the time, they are talking about the government only increasing the budget of some useless program by 3% instead of 5%. Oh....the program didn't get a 5% increase in it's budget this year like they were expecting....the government is cutting spending.....

If we are going to tell the people to cut their spending....why not tell the government to do the same thing.

Everyone complains about the high profits the oil companies are making lately. If you look back over the past 25 years....the government has profited 3 times more than all the oil companies combined from taxes on gasoline and oil. Why aren't people complaining about that as much as they are complaining about the oil companies?

Speed

 

[speedyf]

Who's more greedy.....the greedy oil companies or our greedy government?

http://www.taxfoundation.org/publications/show/1139.html

Speed