Thursday, January 24, 2008
Its the economy, Stupid!
Everyone who has been feeding a family, heating a home, gassing up the car on a fixed income--and that means most wage earners*, plus those retired and living on social security, the very poor and disabled who live on welfare--knows that the economy is a mess. Too many people are living on credit--from their homes, from credit cards.
W's proposed one time tax rebate will go to only those making over $40,000 per year, and personally the $400 per person, $800 for a family is only a drop in the bucket. Will it stimulate more spending? Barely. Oh, some may replace their refrigerators or buy some clothes; many will feed that money to their bills.
Want to really stimulate the economy and increase spending? Give families working wages, so that they have something left over to actually spend! Increase minimum wage. Increase welfare and social security payments. Increase food stamp allotments--$1 per meal is not sufficient, nor does it fuel a healthy person.
Want to increase savings? Stop taxing the interest earned.
Common sense. But that's not something you'd find in this administration as they have so demonstrated.
*not counting 5% unemployed--which will soon expand by the 41,000 that Citibank will be laying off. Unemployment checks for most are 1/3rd of what they had made, for a whopping 26 weeks, not realistic for most to even make ends meet, especially since many Americans do not even have savings to lean on anymore.
W's proposed one time tax rebate will go to only those making over $40,000 per year, and personally the $400 per person, $800 for a family is only a drop in the bucket. Will it stimulate more spending? Barely. Oh, some may replace their refrigerators or buy some clothes; many will feed that money to their bills.
Want to really stimulate the economy and increase spending? Give families working wages, so that they have something left over to actually spend! Increase minimum wage. Increase welfare and social security payments. Increase food stamp allotments--$1 per meal is not sufficient, nor does it fuel a healthy person.
Want to increase savings? Stop taxing the interest earned.
Common sense. But that's not something you'd find in this administration as they have so demonstrated.
*not counting 5% unemployed--which will soon expand by the 41,000 that Citibank will be laying off. Unemployment checks for most are 1/3rd of what they had made, for a whopping 26 weeks, not realistic for most to even make ends meet, especially since many Americans do not even have savings to lean on anymore.
Labels: Economy
