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You Call That A Stimulus Package?
Democratic 11-Year plan is meaningless shenanigans

By Jeff Brewer
[email protected]

4/06/2001

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            The recent ploy from the socialists in the United States Senate that purportedly gives every American income/payroll taxpayer a $300 dollar tax “rebate” only proves how statist these democrats are.  And by that I mean to say that their obvious collectivist mindset is on display for all Americans to see.  For theirs is a “stimulus” plan that hardly qualifies as a stimulus.  It’s more like a disincentive.

            These elected statesmen are peddling an “urgently needed” legislative package that provides a one-time, uniform, $300 check to every single citizen taxpayer or a $600 rebate check for a married couple, regardless of income level.  On its face, this plan looks like it’s a big, bold compassionate, “Let’s give the money back to the people” tax reduction.  In reality though, the plan’s $460 billion-over-11-years sticker price is a meaningless shenanigan that provides extremely minimal overall tax relief, puts a small amount of money in the hands of bottom rung wage earners and the capitalist small businessmen alike, and essentially leaves out the folks that pay the vast majority (upwards of 90%) of federal income taxes!  For goodness sakes, we have a projected budget surplus of $5.6 trillion!

Even more, the fact that this plan is less than a third of President Bush’s bashful proposal indicates the bill would engender marginal results.  Wasn’t it just two or three weeks ago that these stooges painted Bush’s plan as a do-nothing strategy that would accomplish little if anything to curb the present economic downturn?  Yes.  And yet, they have the audacity to then proffer legislation that promises something less than the President and Congressional Republicans are offering!  This strikes me as an insulting display of democratic arrogance.  If these people are so intent on creating a “stimulus”, then why not make President Bush’s plan completely retroactive, which would give more of the country’s highly burdened tax-payers a more proportionate amount of the initial reductions?    These moneyed businessmen are the people that create and spur economic wealth, not the whole of the working class.  It’s a classic case of these democratic senators “not being able to see the forest for the trees!”  More aptly, they can’t stomach a scenario that sees the new president garnering any credit for anything having to do with tax cuts!

            Democrats are betting their plan will serve as an excuse to shelve the marginal tax rate reductions proposed by Bush.  Ideally, they expect the American people to take the $300 bait-hook, line and sinker-and buy into what appears (to millions of Americans) to be a very generous “giveaway” from our loving, benevolent caretakers in Washington.  Unfortunately, their hunch is justified; most Americans are gullible enough to believe this plan actually amounts to a large tax return.   Assuming the congress were to somehow pass this ill-conceived proposal, you can bet that Senators Daschle and Kennedy would shame Americans into believing that (what would then be) additional marginal tax rate reductions would be a giveaway to the rich. Accordingly, in the coming days, the notorious hired liberal guns, from unions and telemarketing companies to paid DNC staff, will flood the telephone lines of congressional moderates of both parties with contrived, public groundswell to try and scare these squishes to tilt the balance in favor of the socialist plan.

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            But before Americans and their elected representatives capitulate to this arrogant display of collectivism, consider the ambiguously communist philosophy behind the plan.  Is this proposal from the democrats fair and equitable?  Is the plan sufficiently egalitarian in its redistribution of income?  Yes, if you judge fairness by virtue of an intensely equitable rebate of $300 to every taxpayer.  No, if you consider that the burden of taxpaying is slanted heavily toward the top wage earners.  When one considers the plan in its totality, the proposal looks typically vacuous.  It’s simply an effort to gain a victory in the polls, a strategy well worn by liberals.  Senate democrats are aiming to sway the polls in their favor with a trifling tax rebate, and at the same time manage to stay true to their big government/communist instincts. 

            Ask yourself, “Is it fair and honest for a person making $450K and in the 39.6% tax bracket to get a measly $300 tax rip-off check, while a lower class wage-earner making $25K a year receives same?”  No, not when an intelligent person considers that the former is shelling out nearly $200k in federal income taxes to begin with.  But in the minds of the socialists in the United States Senate, the arrangement makes perfect sense.

            Contrary to their sentiment, I think it far more beneficial for this nation’s economic fortunes, that the wealthy receive back the vast majority of the tax surplus, instead of a pathetic $300 (This is best achieved via President Bush’s proposals, by the way).  The wealthy create more wealth as they amass more wealth.  You say, “Huh?”  But think about it.  The well off of this great land, as their personal riches attest, are quite fond of making money for themselves.  Many times they achieve this by forming corporations or companies that undertake research and development of manufacturing and production practices, and subsequently make available avant-garde technologies and services for the general public.  As the production process is mastered, enabling the goods to be mass-produced, and supply is able to meet consumer demand, prices come down, encouraging the vast majority of Americans to buy more goods.  Consequently, standards of living increase, and middle and lower class Americans enjoy the luxuries (without spending their life savings) usually associated with the very wealthy of other nations.  Returning these capitalist’s their money would indirectly spur more investment by middle and lower income taxpayers, create more jobs, and generate additional revenue for the government in the form of increased tax receipts.

            So why on earth would these leftist politicos claim to want to spur sustained, meaningful economic investment and development, and then inexplicably propose to give all American tax-payers, regardless of their tax bracket, a $300 rebate check?  As I see it, the best they can hope for is that most lower and middle class Americans will use their $300/$600 check to pay off high utility bills for three or four months, pay off a portion of a credit card bill, fill up with gas a few times, or even be able to afford more groceries for their families.  And this all well and good, to be sure.  But as for the creators’ stated goal of stimulating the American economy, their plan accomplishes nothing!  Even the most optimistic forecaster must admit that most of the families and individuals that receive these rebates will not, in turn, use this money to create more wealth and thereby help to provide a sustained economic expansion.  Realistically, most of America’s masses would spend their check for the aforementioned purposes, or else blow it on new rims for their Chevy Impala or on adult beverages or on clothes and shoes.  Few will save.  And even fewer will invest, partially because $300 is not much to work with as far as investing is concerned, and partly because the good majority of the beneficiaries don’t have the slightest notion of putting their money into the market.  And after the check runs its course, the contrived stimulus will last about a month.  Hardly worthy of the label “stimulus”!

            Every patriot with a backbone should set about calling both of their senators and their congressman, and convey to them your displeasure with the democratic proposal.  And make it clear to these elected statesmen, that any alternative to President Bush’s modest tax reduction plan is unacceptable.  The sort of tax rebate packages proposed by liberals will provide no sustained economic progress because it returns too little money to the American taxpayers, and it doesn’t provide a large enough cash infusion to the small businesses and large corporations that create and sustain economic prosperity in the first place!  Bluntly, this garbage is more short-sided socialism from the communist purveyors in the United States Senate. 

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© Jeff Brewer, 2001, All rights reserved.

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