The Colossal Stimulus Package, Sponsored by the Dems on Capitol Hill...and Big K Cola

[Vinny]

Not to mention that first bailout back in September worked so well, huh?

Expanding government just isn't the answer. It has never worked in the past, it will never work in the future.

The banking system was facing total collapse. Do you understand what that would have meant??

[DennyMcLain]

The banking system was facing total collapse. Do you understand what that would have meant??

No. He's too young and sheltered to understand.

[DennyMcLain]

But, I will agree with Wil on the point that this appears to be just another one of those lobbyist-approved moneygrabs. The moment the initial bailout package was proposed, folks started lining up for their cake.

From the beginning, D.C. should have insisted we call this plan a "loan program", but they didn't, and the media-penned "bailout" tag stuck. Washington has loaned to financial institutions in the past, and have seen profit. I'm not totally against the bank loan. However, we're not seeing the benefits as quickly as I'd like.

Instead of opening their doors to new lines of credit and loans, banks are clamping down. The problem with the first set of loans was, simply, there wasn't enough regulation to them. Should have been loan shark simple -- pay us back, or we take your business! Placing the fear of God into the fat cats on high might force them to move to the beat YOU set, and not their own. That money was supposed to loosen up the purse strings, but it hasn't... yet.

[Uncle Mxy]

According to Obama, when the Bush tax-cuts expire, that's not the same as a tax increase.

Even though the people will see their taxes go up.

Taxes have implicit and explicit temporal components and conditions all the time, and services vary as a function of time.

Like most property tax payers in Michigan, I pay a summer tax and a winter tax where the summer tax is greater than the winter tax. One could easily spin that as "I get a tax cut in the winter and a tax hike in the summer -- how dare they raise my taxes after cutting them". Of course, the tax "hike" is for services that make sense to pay more of in the summer (notably K-12 education and school years). Tax rates that make sense at one time don't necessarily make sense at another time.

[Uncle Mxy]

Not to mention the rich people are the ones who start businesses, invest in businesses, and buy stock...

They don't teach you about institutional investors, or the typical small business owner at Walsh? How disappointing.

[darkobetterthanmelo]

The banking system was facing total collapse. Do you understand what that would have meant??

Four words vinny. Hole in the ground. Best bank EVER.

[WTFchris]

What I don't understand is how Republicans think tax cuts are going to help anyone. They have all their talking heads saying when you give tax cuts that puts more money in their pockets and they can hire new people, thus stimulating the economy. But why rely on them to spend that money? I think it's pretty safe to assume they would just hoard their cash like everyone is doing right now.

So why not invest in infrastructure like Obama wants to? That immediately creates jobs for all those projects, and also creates long term jobs for the maintenance of whatever is built.

I just don't see how tax cuts help anything. Even if you gave the cut directly to the lower income people, all they'll do is pay a bill they might not have otherwise. It won't do jack shit for the person who lost their job. It creates no jobs at all.

[Fool]

Part of what was appealing to Obama's message was that he understood the possibility of fixing multiple problems with the same measure, or at least using the same measure to help address multiple problems at once. Using the economic stimulus to spur environmental technology growth and create jobs. Creating jobs that improved the country's infrastructure (not just roads) and equipped government facilities with green technology saving them money in the long term (that addresses 4 issues all in one move).

Cantor's mantra of "focus this thing like a lazer beam on job creation" is short sighted and won't be the kind of large scale move needed to fix this mess.

Oh, and Ledezma is terrible. "Rich people spend money". No one thinks that's true. No one. It's a well founded fact that the rich spend less of a percentage of their wealth then the poor. THAT'S WHY THEY STAY RICH. But giving people money isn't the right tact at all in the first place. My job is very secure and if you give me money right now, I'm paying off debt or socking that shit away just in case.

[Wilfredo Ledezma]

Consumption isn't based on the percentage of your income that you spend/save, it's the dollars & cents that you do spend...

The wealthier people spend more dollars on non-essential goods, despite being so few in numbers.

The wealthy sustain the economy when it's thriving, without them spending lavishly, the economy has 0% chance of rebounding...

[Wilfredo Ledezma]

Not to mention, we haven't even talked about how great Universal Health Care and how great that's going to be...