President Obama got his stimulus bill signed, sealed and will soon be delivered. How? Well, you should see a decrease in your income tax from your paycheck. That is, if you earn less than $200,000/year (too bad, IANO).
That is all well and good. I'm up for any sort of tax break I can get, especially with this economy. Now, living in Massachusetts, we're not out of the woods by any means. Even with this Federal Income Tax break, we still have our Commonwealth's debts to pay. For example, the Mass Turnpike tolls have just been raised (the vote just passed as I write this). How much? Well, that depends if the governor gets the state tax on gasoline raised. If that bill passes, then the toll increase won't be as harsh. But the gas tax could be as much as 19 cents a gallon.
See where I'm going with this?
While I appreciate the government's attempt to help me while simultaneously paying their bills, it's just hard to see anything as a stimulus plan. It's more like an offset plan and they got the math wrong.
If you want to slash your deficits, there are other ways to get this done. Pull our troops out of Iraq and put that ridiculously enormous budget into combating the debts this country owes. That's one. The other is consumer confidence. Stocks rebounded today when Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the recession may end soon. Isn't that just...astounding? Stocks rebound after Bernake said the recession may end. May end. Soon. No real specifics. And lookit that: Wall Street responds. Ben, couldn't you have said that just a wee earlier? Sheesh.
Consumer confidence in the market economy is the only real way we're going to climb out of this recession. Stop giving bailouts to home buyers who can't pay their mortgages. Cruel? Heartless? Let me tell you: there are so many more people out there that stay under the radar, quietly working their asses off to pay said mortgages, and they aren't receiving dime one for a job well done. What do they get? A home to live in. It's not a right, it's a privilege and those quiet Americans who do pay their bills vastly outnumber those who got scammed by the Adjustable Rate Mortgages.
You want consumer confidence? Show some respect to those Americans who pay their bills and, let's face it...ARE the consumers. You want the economy to rebound? Show some respect and cater to those who WILL buy products and bring the whole thing back into the less-red (black is probably a bit optimistic). Everything relies on not reality, but the perception of reality. Just look at the reaction to Ben's statement and tell me that's not the case.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment