Political Commentary

El Presidente Bush and Congress have collaborated to give the American people a bribe, oh, I mean a check. This is a very stupid move, motivated by political considerations on both sides of the isle. For the Republicans, they are honestly trying to stimulate the economy. Too bad it is a completely ridiculous and expensive way to do it. The Democrats don’t really want a stimulated economy, they just want to buy votes. I think they are counting on this debacle not stimulating the economy, but they can say to their constituents how caring they are since they got them some extra money. There are a lot of issues here, so I will try to spell them all out.

Lets start with the economic stimulus side of things. First there is the political consideration. The Republicans want to stimulate the economy so that the Democrats lose that as a campaign issue. The economy actually isn’t that bad. The housing market is in a normal cyclic slowdown. The mortgage “crisis” happened at a fortuitous time for the Democrats. The Press can always find some poor person somewhere to show how miserable life in the United states is. Some states are suffering at the hands of politicians who can’t keep their hands out of pockets. Thus we all believe that the economy is bad. This is good for the Democrats, because they can blame the policies of the current administration for the slowdown of the economy. So the Republicans desperately want to stimulate the economy to eliminate this issue from the presidential campaign. There is no question in my mind that putting more cash in the hands of consumers, stimulates the economy. The question is, does $300.00 - $1200.00 per person represent enough stimulation to actually accomplish anything. Most people I have heard about plan to pay bills with their check. This does not stimulate the economy, because it simply pays for something that already stimulated the economy. Besides, what are you going to pay for? A small fraction of your rent or mortgage? Part of a car payment? This amount of money really doesn’t go very far. Regardless of Republican wishful thinking, I doubt if there will be much stimulus to this package.

On the Democratic side, this is pure bribery. They talk about economic stimulus, and have agreed with the Republicans about that, but this is totally self serving, since they want to buy votes. They tried to get a check for people who don’t even pay taxes too. But they will settle for what they got. They simply want to buy votes. So how much will you sell your vote for. I have to admit that I probably have a price. Is it $300.00? No. Is it $600.00? No. Is it $1200.00? No. I think if they would pay me about $500,000.00, I would probably vote democratic regardless of the harm I believe their policies would do. Again, how much would it take for them to buy your vote?

Now on the practical side of things, does this even make sense? The timing of this payment is clearly geared toward the November election. I think they are going to send out checks in May. Now I ask you, how much are they going to spend on paper and postage to send these checks out? I submit it will be millions of dollars. Does this make sense when we are running huge budget deficits? Aren’t many of us receiving checks in the mail from the government anyway? Why do it twice when we could combine this “stimulus” with tax refunds? Why not just give a special tax credit of whatever the appropriate amount, and the government could save millions of dollars, and accomplish the same “economic stimulus". Of course, this isn’t as good for the Democrats, because it would look like they were supporting tax cuts, and it wouldn’t look like a bribe, oh, I mean gift, to people.

Because this is already a done deal, and my opinion isn’t going to really change anything, I have a suggestion. Really stimulate the economy with your check, by doing something wonderful with that money. I am going to donate mine to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, to try to find a cure for blood cancers. I would love to have a bunch of other people join me and donate to my account at the link above. However, equally good would be to donate to the charity of your choice. Give to your church or whatever your favorite charity is. You know what would be great? Write a comment on this blog telling readers where you are going to donate your check! That would really be fun!