Economic Stimulus Bill [sic]
 

...Anxious over the ballooning size of the proposed economic stimulus package, now at more than $900 billion, lawmakers in both parties are working on a last-minute plan to strip $200 billion from the bill.

The effort is being led by two centrist senators — Ben Nelson, Democrat of Nebraska, and Susan Collins, Republican of Maine.

Among the initiatives that could be cut are $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts, $14 million for cyber security research by the Homeland Security Department, $1 billion for the National Science Foundation, $400 million for research and prevention of sexually transmitted diseases, $850 million for Amtrak and $400 million for climate change research. But so far, none of the suggestions come close to being enough to shrink the package on the scale proposed.

But this week, the Senate added more than $30 billion in additional spending, including tax breaks for purchases of homes and cars.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/06/us/politics/06stimulus.html?_r=1&hp



Hey, why don't we just make it easier for people, who wouldn't otherwise qualify, to get mortgages to buy homes and cars????

Because it is all about control. If they just give you money they have lost control, but if they can divert money to projects that benefit friends--then they maintain control and power.

Now the President is telling us that we will fail as a nation if this Bill fails.
I hope that is hyperbole.

One of the provisions is $287 Million for a Polar Ice Breaking Ship. But out of the other side of their mouth, they tell us that the Polar Ice Caps are melting. So why do we need a ship to break non-existant ice?

The Senate bill increases the tax credit from 7,500 to 15,000 for the purchase of a taxpayer's primary residence.

Note: the words "first time" have been removed from the Senate version.;)

Credit would be available on purchases for 1 year after enactment. T/P's could split it between year of purchase and the next year to maximize the tax offset. The new model does not appear to be refundable-only to reduce current year tax. Nor would pruchases after enactment be eligible for a carryback to 2008 returns...
Stay tuned....

Congress still doesn't get the concept of "change" and it's up to the electorate to vote the rascals out. The landmark economic bill isn't the place for pork, earmarks and pet projects.

:beerchug:

That is a question I've been meaning to ask Al Gore for years!

I don't think I disagree with anything that was just said.

My point, maybe poorly phrased, was sarcastic.

You could make a very good argument that where we are now started because it suddenly became easier for people to get home loans who shouldn't have received them.

When that bubble burst, all hell broke loose.



If we have a "tax credit" of $15K for homeowners, don't you think some creative type is going to find a way to "sell" people houses with no $$$ down, using the benefit of the tax break.

I can visualize the marketing right now.... "No $$$$ down, give us your tax refund next year!"


Politicians come up with stuff that seems like a good idea at the time.

Then they blame the consequences on someone else.

Reps and dems. (Both are looking for votes.)

Aww, it ain't no biggie. If we run low on money just print some more.

Its not a bout making it easier for people to qualify. its about making people more prosperous so they can easily meet the qualifications.

lowing the qualifications for mortgages is how we got in this mess in the first place.

What they need to do is lower taxes and get out of the way of people making money. but this would mean the more of the people would be less dependent on government. with less need for government means the government would loose more control. and why would the government do anything that would weaken its power and decrease its size?

So, if I am reading this right, buying my home in December, 2007, means I won't see this credit in any way, shape, or form, right? Sweet...

Would you like malaise with that?

tainted peanuts

I'm off to buy a jar of peanut butter

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g1...BarrowCash.jpg

Maureen Dowd Nailed It - We Need Dave
 

Mr. Obama’s errors on the helter-skelter stimulus package were also self-induced. He should put down those Lincoln books and order “Dave” from Netflix.

When Kevin Kline becomes an accidental president, he summons his personal accountant, Murray Blum, to the White House to cut millions in silly programs out of the federal budget so he can give money to the homeless.

“Who does these books?” Blum says with disgust, red-penciling an ad campaign to boost consumers’ confidence in cars they’d already bought. “If I ran my office this way, I’d be out of business.”

Mr. Obama should have taken a red pencil to the $819 billion stimulus bill and slashed all the provisions that looked like caricatures of Democratic drunken-sailor spending.

As Senator Kit Bond, a Republican, put it, there were so many good targets that he felt “like a mosquito in a nudist colony.” He was especially worried about the provision requiring the steel and iron for infrastructure construction to be American-made, and by the time the chastened president talked to Chris Wallace on Fox Tuesday, he agreed that “we can’t send a protectionist message.”

Mr. Obama protested to Brian Williams that the programs denounced as “wasteful” by Republicans “amount to less than 1 percent of the entire package.” [Duh - isn't that $8 Billion (with a B)] All the more reason to cut them and create a lean, clean bill tailored to creating jobs.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/04/opinion/04dowd.html?em

The whole column is very good.

Won't it be grand when we pay for a loaf of bread with a Benjamin? :cool: