Give people a $600 "stimulus check" and they'll stick it in the bank or pay off a credit card.

[WeDidIt]

Give people an extra $10-$30 per week in their paycheck and they'll grumble about how small it is and never really notice that they spent it.

$10 X 100,000,000 workers = $1,000,000,000/week pumped into the economy = $52,000,000,000 pumped into the economy over a year.

Who had the better direct stimulus plan, Bush or Obama?

[closeupready]

1. Sorry, I liked Bush's plan better.

(much as it pains me to say he was better at anything than Obama is.)

[DevonRex]

7. You forgot the sarcasm thingy.

[obiwan]

17. Bush's "plan" is part of the reason we are where we are.

The standing joke at the time of the last tax "break" was:

"I got my tax break. Should I get a car wash or a pizza?"

My tax "break" was about $12 every two weeks.

Simple math. If you reduce the revenue stream (via tax breaks) you (as the government) have less total money to pay for things.

Besides, tax breaks only happen if you have a job. About one of ten American workers are unemployed, and they will tell you a tax break doesn't mean diddly to them. Feeding themselves and their family does.

My wife and I are 100% disabled (remember, disability is insurance taken out of your paycheck, and is NOT an entitlement) and our total annual household income (in LA County, California) is $36,000.

My wife had to refinance the house when her first husband died, to pay off the portion of the medical bills not covered by the insurance. If we are lucky, our house will be paid off when I am 63.

What little "discretionary" income we have is eaten up by medical costs.

I worked my ass off for 35 years before I got sick and I doubt that I was able to save $50,000 during that entire time.

Not bitching. That's just reality for my wife and me.

Fuck tax breaks. They don't work.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. Obama's plan is better for the economy

but he won't get the credit for it like Bush did, because it isn't so obvious.

[redqueen]

3. IMO, Obama (nt)

[DebJ]

4. Yep. Same effect if you divide up CEO wages among the workers!

[Goblinmonger]

5. Obama's will help the economy more.

I agree with you that and extra $10-$30 dollars a week will get spent by most people rather than used to pay things off or into savings. That will mean more to the economy.

[LooseWilly]

31. That's an extra bottle of whiskey a week...

Kentucky will be stimulated by my efforts alone!

[DJ13]

6. I dont know why people criticize those who paid down credit

with the last $600 stimulus.

Much of our economic problems originate from consumers being too deep in debt, using stimulus money to ease some of their debt is the best possible use of the money.

In fact, if Obama's advisers were smart they would have advocated for direct consumer stimulus to pay down personal debt as the best means of getting stimulus money to the banks.

That would have been a stimulus that actually would have accomplished something more than just a handout to the wealthy.

[WeDidIt]

9. I paid off debt with mine

and I'd do the same with the new stimulus if it came in a lump sum.

Instead, it just goes into the bucket with everything else and is spent.

[DJ13]

13. Imagine how stimulated consumer spending might be if 1/2 all debt was paid

With the amount spent so far that could have already been accomplished, and our economy would have reignited months ago from the pent up demand.

[closeupready]

15. Total bailout money per taxpayer so far is over $50,000.

If I had received a check for $50,000, you better believe I would be spending it, unlike banks who have simply been padding their capital balance sheets.

[obiwan]

19. If I had $50,000 ....

.... I would pay off my house, and the credit card debt I accumulated over the last 8 years that were ostensibly so good.

I worked my ass off for 35 years and I doubt I was able to collectively save $50,000 during that time.

Not bitching. That's just our reality.

[closeupready]

14. It should be clear to everyone by now, that Americans tolerate welfare only for the wealthy

and powerful. Welfare for their neighbors, on the other hand, is 'unfair', 'a handout'. :crazy:

[obiwan]

24. Damn straight.

The rich get richer, the poor get the picture...

[SoCalDem]

34. The $600 arrived to coincide with $4 a gallon gas..it went to Mobil & Exxon

:grr:

[Skittles]

8. honestly, the intents of those two were completely different

bush's was a payoff and an early indicator of his intent to bankrupt the country - I believe Obama truly puts some thought into what he does and is truly trying to help the average worker

[Cant trust em]

10. Absolutely. Giving a load of cash people who are already in debt will not get into the economy

Those people will use it to pay down their debt.

[Igel]

28. And if they pay down their debt, what happens?

They have lower interest payments, so they permanently have more money. That money gets into the economy, as though money paid to the bank were sucked into a black hole. (Or they promptly run up more debt, but then they haven't really paid down their debt.)

Those who are going to spend the money in any event can spend it on something bigger than a series of pizzas and burritos. iPods, even a computer. Downpayment on a car. Maybe the better part of a mortgage payment. Or their car insurance. That money certainly goes into the economy.

If people pay down their debts, they maybe declare bankruptcy just a bit less. Not a problem, if you ask me.

Banks suddenly have fewer loans outstanding. True, they have less projected income, but they also suddenly have more capital. When the banking system needs recapitalizing, this isn't a bad thing. If the banks are sufficiently capitalized, they can turn around and loan the money. Credit crunch is ameliorated. And the money gets into the economy.


However, if we get it in one lump we can't be reminded constantly that we've been given the money. After a few months, it's mostly forgotten.

[Cant trust em]

30. A one time $600 bonus is not going to keep people from bankruptcy. NT

[Vanje]

11. 600 bucks at once, or an extra 10-30/week?

No difference!
I'd spend it all on CHEESE!

[pansypoo53219]

12. if you give $600 to the POOR

WE WILL SPEND IT. I WILL SPEND IT. but stimulating the poor? unheard of.

[avaistheone1]

21. Rather than $600 checks. It is better to create jobs, so that the stimulus is sustainable.

Any word of jobs being creating in anyone's communities on a large scale?

[xchrom]

16. well intention counts for something here.

the 600 bucks bush paid out to everyone was a bribe.

and then he sank the country.

the ten to thirty dollars is trying to repair that damage.


but make no mistake -- lots of people will/would use either to pay off existing debt.

just like the Financials -- The People need some serious cash.
mostly in the form of a good pay raise -- but however they get it right now.

but you can never ever get over the baracade of if the people have it -- it will hurt The Economy.

[joeglow3]

18. This is so sad!!

Give $600 to people and they will do what they should do with it - save it or pay off debt. Give them small increments and our consumer/credit driven society will just look at their bank statement to see how much more they can spend before the next payday, thereby continuing to live paycheck to paycheck.

I don't care which president propsed which. Rather, my concern is that this highlights all that is wrong with people's priorities.

[paulk]

20. Obama's is a better long term plan,

but I'll tell you, if I got that $1200 (along with my wife's) right now, it would pay my mortgage and buy groceries for a month. For people who are self employed with no recourse to unemployment insurance, Obama's plan isn't doing much. I haven't seen any trickle down in terms of work for me from it yet.

I wish that Obama had included a more direct stimulus, and I think that the stimulus overall needed to be much larger. I realize the votes probably weren't there, but that realization isn't going to help me much when I lose my house, which is a distinct possibility if things don't pick up in the next 6 to 9 months.

[cwcwmack]

22. my extra cash just got swallowed up by NEW California taxes...

including a 1.0% increase in sales tax and they doubled the car registration.

[obiwan]

25. In the scheme of things...

... a 1% sales tax increase and increased car registration are chicken feed.

[cwcwmack]

26. I calc'd it... it'll cost me about $1000 per year...

[LooseWilly]

33. I'm still looking into the idea

of registering my car to vote. Next year it will be old enough.

Needless to say, registration fees are chump change (well, with the inflation over the last 10 years, now they are... 15 years ago the $50 might've felt like real money... now it's a night out at a bar... or 2 weeks worth of drinking at home).

Sales tax increase?... hell, I voted for an increase in sales tax here in CA to help fund Emergency rooms... because that's my health insurance plan. Another increase just adds life to my "well thought out" health insurance strategy.

What can be said? If $1k a year makes a real difference to you, you are screwed... no matter who's in the White House. This is America, where the poor ought to learn the virtues of table scavenging (like I'm the only one who's ever gone into a restaurant and sat at a table that the bus boys haven't yet cleaned and just started munching on nachos, or fries... or slices of pizza). I personally prefer discreet foodstuffs (my recycling of a term from statistics classes in college). Fries are discreet foodstuffs, as eating 7 fries will not overly spread your germs over the remaining 22 fries (numbers arbitrarily made up). Pasta, on the other hand, is not discreet, as the fork that one (presumeably) used to eat some of the pasta has probably mingled freely with all the other pastas that might be left in a dish.

Or the poor could agitate for dignity. We could riot in the streets like its France and we just don't give a shit.
Last time I held my breath for that, though... I woke up on the floor with bruises where I'd fallen on my head...

[bigwillq]

23. I like the Obama plan better

at this point.

[Lyric]

27. I liked the checks better.

We're poor. We spend our money. We don't have credit cards or savings.

The BEST plan would let people choose for themselves.

[davidpdx]

29. The only reason I liked Bush's better is because I actually qualified for it

As a expat, I won't get a dime of the new one. The $300 went to, yes bills. I know, not very good for economic stimulus.

[Political Heretic]

32. Obama's tax break is better as stimulus. Bush's was better for poor people in crisis.

NOT that this was in ANY WAY his intention.

I'm just saying...

[rucky]

35. 600 X 100,000,000 workers...

= 60,000,000,000 pumped into the economy.

Sounds about the same to me.

[a la izquierda]

36. What if you're NOT getting $10-20/week.

I'm getting an extra $5. Per month. I make $1200/month. What good is that $5 going to do me, particularly when I don't even get 12 paychecks? I'm a grad student. An extra $40-$80 would actually help me. But I don't even get that. To top that off, my husband and I owe the state of Oklahoma $600 in taxes from last year...and he makes $22K per year.

I don't know how in the heck the government figures out who gets how much, but I most certainly am not getting it. Hopefully it's going to others who need it more than I do, but I really could use it.