$300-600 A PERSON. THIS will create new jobs? stimlate the economy?

[ChairmanAgnostic]

Who does nancy think she is kidding?

This will increase the debt, do nothing to spur investment, and is a faux bandaid on a structural problem. A palliative that cures nothing.

Shame on the Democrats for falling under Bush's sway yet again. Shame on them for caving in to his demands and threats.

Imagine if that money, all $150,000,000,000 went into health care, a crash energy research program, helping the poorest of the poor out with fuel, food, and mortgage problems?

damn, I HATE our current leadership in congress. Reid is even worse than Pelousy.

[NNN0LHI]

1. Why not $6000 for everyone and spur the economy ten times as fast?

That would only be logical. If $600 is good shouldn't 6 grand be a lot better?

Don

[ChairmanAgnostic]

2. spur or spurn?

Sorry, I missed that.

As Cheney told more than a few (convincing Bush in the process), Raygun taught us that budget deficits don't matter.
Remind me who the last president was who had a surplus?

[NNN0LHI]

3. Surplus don't do us any good

About the time we get one a Rethug will certainly come along and figure out a way to plunder it from us like Bush did.

Screw the surplus. Print some more money.

Don

[AlinPA]

5. Yep, it's just borrowed money and won't be paid back anyway. The rest of the world

has a lot to loan us.

[peacebuzzard]

4. Incredible that this extra tax break (assuming you paid into the tax system)

which will now bog down the tax refund system with an estimate of a July payout date is supposed to do anything.

Brilliant idea.:sarcasm:

At least that was my impression of the situation. I am open to other ideas or debates on this solution.

[stillcool]

6. I think we're getting..

'trickled' on. Again.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

21. exactly!

but, don't you eat that yellow snow. (with all thanks to Frank)

[Trailrider1951]

7. Well, since I'll end up owing about $500 to the IRS for 2007

it will be an even swap. They can count me out of the economy "stimulation".

[nickinSTL]

8. absolutely. It's a joke.

How can anyone believe that $600 will do anything?

Oh, they probably don't, but want to look like they're doing something.

I can tell you, my $600 won't go to "spurring the economy" - it won't go to me buying a big-ticket item or investing in the stock market, or whatever these delusional idiots expect people to do with it. It will go to paying my bills - for one month - and will only make that month a little less tight than most.

Yeah, big help. Now give me $600 a MONTH, and you'll get somewhere.

[casus belli]

9. You left out Education

Unforgivable, as lack of education is at the heart of all of the problems we currently face.

And, as an aside, helping the poorest of the poor out with fuel, food and mortgage is all this bill is. They are counting on the poor spending it almost immediately, which they will - they need to in order to survive. But, it's like putting a band-aid on a cut artery.

[ozone_man]

13. It's long term investment in education and environment

that will restore the country. End the war and military occupation around the world and use that money to create green jobs and higher education levels.

Also the great disparity in wealth concentration is really what is killing the economy. And the wealthy don't spend that much, they accumulate wealth. So, like the late 1920's, we have even more of a disparity in wealth concentration. That kills consumer spending, which is 2/3 of GDP. Fair taxation to allow redistribution of wealth is necessary as are education and jobs. A New Deal for the 21st century, that's what we need.

[havocmom]

14. Education is essential, but it doesn't help when jobs are going overseas

Lots of unemployed and under employed people with good degrees in America today. cheney says unemployment is due to lack of education. Of course, he also mentions that poverty is due to people not saving enough money.

Take up the issue of how the tax system favors larger corporations and how workers across the board have actually lost real wages over the decades and THEN the economy might favor more being able to spend on education AND create jobs here for the educated.

This 'stimulus' plan is just a band aid on a severed artery. You are right. And I am ashamed the DEMs on the Hill are falling for this crap.

[casus belli]

15. I agree with you in large part...

But we stand no chance of reversing the trend of outsourcing without the prioritization of education. How are we supposed to demand the jobs of the future stay at home, when there are countries with a more educated workforce that will work for less?

We need to move out of the industrialized model for education which has been the paradigm for the last 60 years, and put the focus on technological innovation - math and science. Largely, the jobs we have lost are not coming back. That's the reality. Our next big chance is alternative energy. If we allow someone else to take the lead on renewable energy, we're only repeating the mistakes of the last 30-40 years.

[havocmom]

19. Oh, we agree. We need education

to get people to take the government back and rebuild America. We need it to be innovative in putting Gore's ideas that saving the environment will create new jobs into wide spread actions. And we need it to create/elect leaders who will stand up to the powers that want the status quo because they make the bucks from the way things are and don't want to share bucks with people promoting the way things could be. We need education so people will see through the lies that saving the environment will cost jobs. We need education so we can do the NEW jobs we have to make to save the environment and the future of the species.

But to many people, the myth is education, or lack there of, is what separates the employed from the unemployed. I try to dispel that myth. It is just more blaming the poor for their own problems. It is a way to distract people from really looking at the system and how it favors some while making improvement impossible for others.

Believe me, seeing locally celebrated high school valedictorians and salutatorians have to take bone-head college courses, and then come home failed from even those worries me greatly. We play at education now. We pretend it is a priority but our actions as a society prove the lie.

We do need educations. But we need to add the addendum that education of the individual has to be more than the ticket to personal salvation. The culture needs education about the need for community betterment, not the current emphasis on personal betterment and society be damned. Too many MBAs from the 80s are part of the problems we face today. They did what the corporations told them so they would advance and now they find they were tools in their own demise too.

Along with education, we need wisdom and better moral judgment, as individuals and as a society.

I never discourage education. Just don't want it used a the peg to hang excuses on the way cheney does.

[casus belli]

27. Agreed.

>>We play at education now. We pretend it is a priority but our actions as a society prove the lie.

Truer words were never spoken.

[conspirator]

10. It's just bush bribing his sheep for their loyalty. Anyone with half a brain is just shocked n/t

[havocmom]

11. Nothing more than Trickle UP Economics. More corporate welfare.

Americans get the checks, pay bills or buy things (either way, Corporations are the ones getting the money). Americans left with larger national debt at the very least. Depending on who you listen to, we end up paying the money back one way or another so what ever we buy, we pay double for.

[NashVegas]

12. It'll Help Bail Out the Top 10%

Also, if you use the $600 in some way to start a small business, you may help yourself.

[Dakini23]

16. $300-$600

I am broke as shit...sold my car so I would have money to pay the rent for a few months and for bills. Luckily, I live in a city...but, handing out this money is really such a waste. Yes, I could use $600 right now. That's almost a months rent, but I think this money would be better well spent and for the good of the whole country if we put it into repairing our country's infastructure or put it into education or healthcare....something that can benefit all for a long time. When and if I get this "handout" from the government, the last thing I am going to do with it is go out shopping for "things" with it. It will most likely put food on my table, which I will buy at the Farmer's Market, or pay for neccessities, like rent. Maybe my landlord will use the money I give him to go out and buy a flashy new digital tv at Best Buy.

[dragonlady]

17. Look on the bright side

This means they're going to end the war a year and a half early! :sarcasm:

http://www.nationalpriorities.org/costofwar_home

[LeftCoast]

18. AND you won't get the check till JUNE at the earliest

It's fucking ridiculous

[havocmom]

20. Some one at DU posted about their heating fuel bill and how the $$ would help with heat

It made me cry because that person may succumb to hypothermia before any financial help arrives.

[LeftCoast]

22. Oh man...that is really sad

I hope they're able to find some more immediate help. I'm very glad I don't live in a climate where heating oil is necessary!

[jazzjunkysue]

23. We could develop alteratives to heating oil, if nothing else.

This is a total crock.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

24. the original post?

I got the idea that you agree. Imagine putting that kind of money into a crash program for home heating. wind is being used in germany with great success. And if we could just capture those itty bitty solars, and put them to work. . .

[dkf]

25. Takes too long. For it to be stimulative people need to get and spend now.

[alfredo]

26. Paying down credit card debt could blunt any stimulus.

I'm putting money into Dems and a local food bank.

[Political Heretic]

28. It will help me out.

That's all I know.