Posted by
Larry Gee on Wednesday, January 30, 2008 11:01:49 AM
I've watched with amazement as our elected officials do a collective "Chicken Little" regarding the economy. Everyone is touting this stimulus package or that one. The conventional wisdom right now is that if you happen to be among the souls in this country that the government has extracted taxes out of, you might be getting a small portion of that money back. To this I say: NO THANKS.
As I contemplate the application of what I might use that $600 - $1200 for, thoughts of a new High Def TV comes to mind, or a new computer or maybe the new laminate floors for the kitchen that my wife has been wanting for some time or some other type of home improvement. However, as these pleasant thoughts drift through my mind, other thoughts creep in about the debt I carry on credit cards, car loans and my mortgage and the adult portion of my psyche says that I should apply that unexpected bounty toward that balance. Paying my Visa bill isn't going to stimulate the economy at all.
Now, another part of my adult psyche kicks in to wonder "If the government is going to spend an approximate $150 Billion dollars, where is that money coming from?" Well from you and me, or from our children assuming some poor schmuck at the Treasury department has to go and sell $150 Billion worth of bonds to cover our elected officials generosity. Somehow that strikes me in the same nerve that my wife waltzing through the front door with numerous bags dangling from her arms and announcing how much she "saved" me by buying all the stuff I now need to find a place to put.
Furthermore, I heard the other day on a radio program, that even if a so called stimulus package were to be passed by our esteemed lawmakers, it would be MONTHS before anyone were to receive their government handout. If the problem is NOW, the solution being proposed isn't going to help the economy six to nine months from now.
So, let me repeat: NO THANKS, President Bush. NO THANKS, Speaker Pelosi. NO THANKS, Senator Reid. Keep the so called stimulus package. I'd say apply it to the national debt, but unfortunately the source of the $150 Billion would be added to the debt, so JUST DON'T SPEND IT. The economy will slowdown a bit, but the fundamentals are still good. Instead of having 4% growth, we'll only have 2%. Then when all of the hysteria about the "sub prime mortgage crisis" dissipates, the people who over extended themselves and the banks who loaned them money work things out, and our elected officials come to their fiscal common senses, the economy will right itself.
Repeat after me: NO THANKS. NO THANKS. NO THANKS.