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I support Obama more than most, but this package is overhyped. There are really only a couple things in it that will help out the average joe at all.
-We'll each receive an extra $13 per paycheck.
-Big tax breaks for first time homebuyers and new car purcahses.
-Increased income to people collecting welfare.
Since we don't have the money to pay for an 800 billion dollar stimulus package, the money is essentially a loan from future generations so really, we're just digging ourselves deeper in debt. It's the equivelant of paying off one credit card by switching the balance to a different one. The debt is still there, in fact it's increasing, and at some point we'll have to pay it back or our currency will ultimately become worth less than the paper it's printed on.
I'm not a fan of this plan (or any of the other ones they floated through congress before settling on the one we got.)
If the government really wants to turn things around, there is a way and a select few people are talking about it, but Washington doesn't seem interested. It's an idea called "trickle UP economics". Instead of handing out a trillion dollars to bailout the banks that caused this economic collapse in the first place (by loaning money to people they knew couldn't afford to ever pay it back), that trillion dollars could have been dispensed to the American citizens to pay down their credit card and mortgage debts. (The banks end up with the money anyways, but the massive consumer debt of the American public would basically be wiped clean. At the moment, I believe there is roughly 900 billion dollars in credit card debt in the US. The first bailout package could have wiped that out. So could the amount of this economic stimulus package.) But no, we're going to keep bailing out the failing corporations and banks, somehow expecting them to fix the economy that they broke in the first place. I guarantee there would be no better way to stimulate the economy than to wipe out consumer debt and for the responsible folks that have kept their credit cards maintained, they could pay off large chunks of their mortgage. If they are in the miniscule amount of people that own their home free & clear and have no credit debt, they get a nice fat check for being one of the responsible ones. In the end, people who get a fat paycheck or see their debt wiped out to zero are a hell of a lot more likely to start spending again.
Jon Stewart got on this bandwagon a couple weeks ago so it's finally getting some exposure, but I've heard it discussed in articles and such since the bank bailout became an issue a few months ago. In my opinion, it's the only thing that would have an immediate effect on the economy and almost instantly turn things around.
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