Patrick’s Rants

It sounds like we’re going to get a watered down economic stimulus package. I don’t care that the wealthiest among us won’t get much of a break (extending tax cuts that won’t do a thing for us today or any day. Trickle down economics was debunked a long time ago). I do care that it sounds like people on unemployment or collecting food stamps aren’t going to get an extension. What kind of a country are we when we tell people,

“it’s too bad you’re out of work, but you don’t need to eat”?

I also care when families make too much to qualify for things like SCHIP but don’t make enough to actually pay for their children’s health care out right.

Let’s talk about another idea that I’ve heard floated around, give companies a break on equipment that they buy through some kind of accelerated depreciation. This solves nothing. If companies don’t have the cash why should they be encouraged to buy? And most of the equipment being purchased is made in China anyway; that does nothing to boost the US economy overall. It just exports our cash for their goods. And last time there was accelerated depreciation on large equipment - designed to help farmers purchase large vehicles that were used on the family farm - there was a rush to buy gas guzzling Hummers and large vehicles and people ran around trying to figure out how to be considered a “business” so they could buy a big truck.

It now sounds like there will be some kind of tax refund check $600 for individuals and $1200 for a couple. That doesn’t do much for people who don’t have anything and don’t file taxes and probably will result in more flat screen TVs or maybe just payments to the credit card company. How much good will this and can it do for an individual?

The best thing that I’ve heard is to pump money (assuming that we’re going to do it anyway) into local projects - infrastructure. You know, those roads and schools that need to be built anyway? Speed up the payment for the work on those. You get some people working when things are slow in the housing and commercial markets - might be able to hire them at lower rates too. Imagine schools finished under cost and at today’s pricing instead of what it would cost five years from now. As a bonus construction workers buy American made beer when they’re working and that’s good for the economy as well.

So what are you going to do with your windfall tax check?