So I've been sitting here all night listening to the PBS pundits argue about the stimulus bill. You have to wonder what's up with the bums in Washington. It seems pretty simple, put together a plan that will get people spending some money and hopefully get people back to work. Being unemployed in a crapped out economy is no joke. Unless you've been there I don't think you can understand how depressing a state it is. I doubt that many of our current representatives can relate because at the basic level, they don't understand that unemployment statistics for most people are: "I have a job, unemployment is 0%" or "I don't have a job, unemployment is 100%". Members of Congress still have a job. If they want to put together a stimulus plan they should contact some reasonably intelligent unemployed person and ask them what they would do. I imagine they would come up with a plan something like this.1. Give every taxpayer a $5,000 prepaid Visa card, not good for cash, to be used to buy whatever. These days you can use it to buy essentials such as food.
2. Suspend payroll taxes for a year.
3. Increase unemployment benefits to $450 per week for everybody, good for 2 years.
No idea how much something like this would cost but it would probably decrease the fear of depression that is causing people to stop spending and give the economy a good boost.
I suspect though that whatever gets passed, the rich will not get poorer.
