Great conversation on Stimulus Package
Submitted by Smitty on Tue, 01/27/2009 - 9:54pm
Today it rained all day in my neck of the woods. Tuesday, we retired guys play golf at our club but since we got "rained out", we just went into the club room and kinda "bonded". The conversation gravitated to the impending stimulous package that is making its way through the House/Senate. Now, suffice to say that we don't usually discuss religion and politics because those issues usually end up pissing someone off. But, we did discuss this today. And, we all kind of got taken by surprise.
We have one fellow that is like this really right-leaning republican that listens to Rush and Hannity and subscribes to whatever the GOP website is and so forth. But, when this came up and as we discussed what is being considered, he floored us with presenting this as his opinion on what Obama & Co. ought to do.
He said that since the demos seem to be adamant about either sending some of the $800+ billion package to taxpayers in the form of a check or at the very least having some of it as a tax break when people file their taxes this year (both having the same affect by putting money into the hands of people), the government needs to put that money into the hands of people that would actually SPEND it. He said that people that had incomes at a certain level (example: $100,000/year in the south) would take that money and just put it into their bank accounts or just invest it with some investment firm. They wouldn't turn it around by spending it and would create no "stimulous". He said that there would certainly be exceptions to that, but as a rule, this is what the money would go to. Then, he said that when the money got to those that were truly in need of it, they would immediately turn it around....spend it. They'd pay needed bills or buy needed things for the house or possibly just "splurge" with it. This would spark the economy.
So, he said, someone needs to tell the leaders in Washington to consider making the outlay of stimulus money available to those that would be most likely to turn it around...spend it...thus making a big impact to our economy. Like he said, if we didn't give the money/tax break to income levels that wouldn't use it to give a needed boost to the economy, we could actually give twice as much to those that would and make the impact doubly effective.
We all listened to him and you could have heard a pin drop. Now, I'm a repub and I'm all for making sure all taxpayers get an equal break....but, this just sounded so damn dead on...well, it just was what we all knew should be what should happen. No...we knew the "politics" in doing something like this would probably stop it from happening because not many of our elected officials (repub or demo) have the nads to take that step. But...I was impressed because first of all who it came from and second of all just how smart an idea it was.
Wish I knew how to get that idea to the "powers to be". It's just sooo great.
It's time we changed our way of "doin' business" in our country, isn't it?
Money should not just be "spent"
I think we need to have something to show for it this time.
What I've been hoping for is an outlay of cash to train a virtual army of people to retrofit buildings that are not energy efficient, give the building owners tax benefits if they will have their buildings done, simultaneously putting people to work and reducing energy usage and SAVING people money.
Progressives are the true conservatives.
Couldn't agree more
Yep...this time we need to do more than just borrow/print a bunch of bucks and send them out to folks hoping they'll do the right thing and spend it and spark the economy. Didn't work last time. Oh, yeah, loved getting that $1,200 for the wife and I, but, to be honest, it could have been used to do things just like you're saying here.
I'm personally hoping there's a LOT of help in this package to help a LOT of small businesses. They're the backbone of our economy and jobs. The majority of the jobs are in small businesses in America and the majority of new jobs created outside of government is from small businesses. The monster mega-corporations? Well, just listen to the news.
Like your idea.
The best thinking is independent thinking.
this is another great idea
How about retrofitting every urinal in the country with a waterless one. The ones in our building say they save an average of 50,000 gallons of water a year, per urinal.
Seems to me that alone would end the water crunch in a lot of places.
Jesus Swept ticked me off. Too short. I loved the characters and then POOF it was over.
-me
Consequences
Especially in places without a water crunch, water use would go down significantly. This would mean decreased revenues for water utilities. That would lead to rate increases and further financial hardships for all customers who buy water.
Rate increases would be offset by the fact
that there will be water with which to brush their teeth in ten years.
***************************
Vote Democratic, the ass you save may be your own.
Exactly, Betsy
And when those rates do go up it will force (other) people to be more conservative in their usage as well. I'm generally not the type to condone high prices as a behavior modifier (gasoline), but forcing people to use 75 gallons of potable water (instead of 150) per day isn't going to "ruin their life", and may very well forestall a catastrophic shortage for our grandchildren.
Having just lived through drought prices
I can't believe this would be a concern.
Especially, as I said, in places with water shortages. I really doubt anyone in Las Vegas or California (which is a leader in using these waterless systems) or North Carolina is going to complain about less water being used, since we have all run out of water in the past year.
I have five people in my house and I cannot stay below the line where water is "cheap". So, when the two-tiered structure was nearly DOUBLED last year I was not a happy camper. I guarantee if the bottom rung prices went up a small bit it would take years to equal the gouging I took during the 3 or 4 months of "drought" prices.
Jesus Swept ticked me off. Too short. I loved the characters and then POOF it was over.
-me
Two things.
If you go back in time this is what many of us have been saying the entire Bush years. He gave most of the tax breaks to the wealthy, who put it into investments and did not spend it. Imagine if the entire Bush tax cut had been tilted the way you discuss it, what I've called "Artesian Economics" after the type of well. You would have had a lot of money being spent locally, creating jobs locally, improving the local economy. BUT, it would have also increased the profits of those companies that actually produce goods worth consuming. Wise investors would have put their money into Barnes & Noble, Target, Costco, etc.
Second, I agree with loftT that this time the money should be spent on long-neglected things. Personally, I would like to see most of the money go into bridges, existing briges. How can we allow so many bridges to sit around dropping concrete into the river? No, spend however many billion it requires to bring every bridge in the country up to snuff. It will put a lot of blue collar workers back to work in every sector of the country. Lost your textile job, steel job, coal job, logging job, fishing job? Well, there's a couple bridges in your county that need replaced. Don't want to work on the bridges, well guess what all those guys and gals working the bridges finally have money to pay for plumbers, carpenters and painters. They are finally going out to the movies and to the local grocery store to buy meat. Etc.
Jesus Swept ticked me off. Too short. I loved the characters and then POOF it was over.
-me
Just wish they'd stop using "shovel ready"
to describe the work that will be generated right off the bat. There's plenty that needs doing right away and it will take all kinds of skills.
Progressives are the true conservatives.
Yep
Exactamundo, Robert. So, wonder if this kind of "small" thinking is going on with regard to what's being voted on in the stimulous package? Sure wish they'd have asked us, don't you?
The best thinking is independent thinking.