House leaders and the administration reached agreement today on a roughly $145 billion economic stimulus package that would quickly send payments to poor and middle-class workers while offering businesses one-time incentives to invest in new equipment and write off tax losses.
In formally announcing the deal this afternoon, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) and Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. hailed it as a bipartisan effort that would help stimulate the economy by spurring consumer demand and creating new jobs.
Under the plan, as many as 117 million people would get rebate checks. Individual income tax filers would receive up to $600, working couples would get up to $1,200, and those with children would get an additional $300 per child.
"First and foremost, the stimulus package will put money in the hands of hardworking Americans," Pelosi told a Capitol Hill news conference. "This is a middle-class initiative to strengthen the middle class and to those who aspire to be in the middle class. It will be in the form of tax rebates and a child tax credit."
Right. We're supposed to think that $300 a head is going to strengthen the middle class? Bolster the economy? THIS WAS YOUR MONEY TO BEGIN WITH, AMERICA!
It blows my mind how that we allowed, as a nation, President Woodrow Wilson to totally and completely disregard the United States Constitution by empowering the Federal Reserve Bank to be the authority over our nation's economy. It further blows my mind how that our nation willing AMENDED the Constitution to include the income tax in 1913. Of course, I suppose I shouldn't really be surprised, after all, that was the era that gave birth to the Bolshevik movement, which was alive and well in American politics and economics as much then as it is today.
"From each according to his means, to each according to his needs."
Never have bought that, because it means that someone else determines what my needs are. That's MY call, not the call of someone else. Especially not someone in the government.
Take a moment, if you will, and consider the things you pay taxes on: income taxes, inheritance taxes, capital gains taxes, wheel taxes, property taxes, sales taxes, gift taxes, luxury item taxes, tobacco and alcohol taxes, firearms and ammunitions taxes, death taxes (yes, you can be taxed for dying), business taxes, fuel taxes, (in Tennessee) entertainment taxes...
ENTERTAINMENT TAXES?
I THOUGHT that this nation rebelled against England over taxes, did we not? Wasn't there a party in Boston Harbor involving tea? "No taxation without representation" has become "I am your representative, and I'm going to pay lip service to making sure you aren't overly taxed."
If Congress and the White House TRULY want to benefit the American people and promote true economic stimulation, they should begin working on eliminating government wastes, earmarks, pork projects, and begin working towards repealing the 16th amendment, or at least coming up with something that isn't overburdening any ONE segment of the American public.
Because the middle class is getting hosed. They always do.
Let me give the rest of you a little advice for what to do with your economic stimulus checks, when you get them. Are you listening? Look around and make sure no one is eavesdropping, this is going to be our little secret, okay? Take that money that the government is sending to you and go straightaway to the financial institution of your choice and invest it, or at least a portion of it, into an account where it will make you more money...
And then call your Congressman and tell them THANK YOU for playing Robing Hood with other people's money, stealing from the American People and then giving a little back so we all "feel good."
AND THEN, next time your representatives come up for reelection, DON'T DO IT. Put someone else in their office and demand that they work for the people, not for bigger government.
Oh yes, and one more twist of the blade. Some will be getting money back who don't pay INTO the income tax system...
Economic incentive my leathery arse.
Once and Always, an American Fighting Man
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