Monday, February 9, 2009

PERSPECTIVE IS LACKING IN THE OBAMA "STIMULUS"

President Obama does not need to tell main-street U.S.A. that the U.S. is experiencing HARD TIMES and that their immediate future is bleak. The average U.S. citizen is living the nightmare. Everyone understands that something needs to be done; accordingly, citizens look to Washington for answers. But lets look the data that President Obama is presenting: an $800 billion, now $900 billion, and, with interest carry, over $1.3 to $1.6 trillion "stimulus" on top of the $700 billion passed TARP program of 2008, added to the $126 billion 2008, AIG bail-out.

Some perspective is needed: it took George Bush 8 years to run up the U.S. National debt to $1.2 trillion dollars. President Obama has been in office for 21 days and proposes that we MORE THEN DOUBLE the national debt. So, rhetoric aside, what does this mean. It means, among other things, that the U.S. dollar, your and my savings, Social Security and other benefits have been devalued, i.e., it will take more dollars to buy the same food, fuel, medical and health services then it did in 2008.

President Obama, and Congress will not pin-point the number of private sector jobs that will actually be created by DOUBLING the national debt. Rhetoric should not be confused with actual private sector job creation. Government jobs, because they are directly taxpayer funded, actually add to the national debt, and do not contribute to the economic growth of the U.S. We are headed to 15% nationwide unemployment; Obama pontificates that the "stimulus" will create 4 million jobs. If we take a slim $800 billion as the proposed "stimulus" package base figure, and assuming that 4 million jobs will be created, that means that it will take $200,000.00 for each job created. Wouldn't be much simpler to pay each unemployed head of household $50,000.00 to pay off their debts and bills ? That would amount a treasury expenditure of a mere $ 200 billion and it actually help troubled homeowners, plus save the taxpayers over $600 billion. Another thought, would be to suspend the payment of Federal Income taxes for everyone making under $250,000.00 a year, for one (1) year, a tax holiday ? No treasury expenditure required; yet talk about "stimulus ".

We all know Washington is not composed of the best, brightest or even those with common sense. That is why the Obama/Pelosi "stimulus" consists of over 650 pages, of loop holes, so persons and business other then the average main-street U.S. citizen (we are the one's suffering) and those with political influence can get the "big" pay-off. The "stimulus" bill proposed by the Obama/Pelosi team is nothing more then a ruse, to direct taxpayer funds to privileged persons, corporations, States and Cities with the right political connections, just as the TARP bail-out of the Bush administration was designed to benefit those on Wall-Street and in the banking community who pushed the U.S. economy off-the-cliff. In short, it is Washington doing business as usual.

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