Cozumel, thank the Congress...

[MikeFerrara]

Oh, one more thing. I love how the talking heads on the news said that the only way this "stimulus" would work is if we spend the money. Saving it (paying down debt), like Selo said, will do NOTHING except increase our budget deficit. Can you imagine how stupid congress should look to the average person? "Here, everyone. FREE MONEY! Just make sure you use it on junk to pick up our economy by the bootstraps. Don't be prudent with it by paying down your high rate credit card balances you ran up buying your previous junk."

Look...the free money will go nicely with all those free gifts that Hil promised. You know...the free health care, the savings account she's going to start for each of our children and all that good stuff? We don't have anything to worry about.

 

[pilot fish]

Thank you President Bush and fellow Republicans. It would have been more of a rebate [ I will not see any of it anyway] but the Democrats had to include welfare recipients that pay NO taxes, their core constituency, so it got watered down.

 

[deeper thoughts]

I'm sending my money back to the treasury to help pay the $720,000,000 a day it's costing for us to prop up the Iraq government and rebuild their country.

Send it to me and I will make sure it gets there

 

[tc_rain]

Thank you President Bush and fellow Republicans. It would have been more of a rebate [ I will not see any of it anyway] but the Democrats had to include welfare recipients that pay NO taxes, their core constituency, so it got watered down.

It sounds like it may be getting watered even more by the Democrats in the Senate.

 

[CMAN]

I'm sending my money back to the treasury to help pay the $720,000,000 a day it's costing for us to prop up the Iraq government and rebuild their country.

Suuuure!!!

 

[CMAN]

What I'd really like to see is sensible spending and a sensible tax structure. Then they wouldn't need to give rebates.

AMEN!!!

 

[ggunn]

I'll suggest a solution. Fire 75% of the government. Cut the pay of the remaining 25% in half, give them a list of things to do with deadlines and manage them closely because they are NOT to be trusted. Make them work for a living.

Turn off every bit of government spending except that which is absolutely necessary to keep the most basic infrastructure running and keep it shut off until each line item can be reviewed.

End this nonsense of sneaking pork fat (or whatever they call it) into legislation.

Uphold the Constitution. Our Constitution guarantees rights and freedoms, NOT safety and NOT a free living. Our politicians as well as our military took an oath to protect the Constitution. They need to be reminded of what their job is.

Of course you know that that will never happen. The affluent have formed an unholy alliance with the poor to harvest the middle class. The incumbents have massed enough of a constituency to vote into being anything they want, and what they want is to stay in office and milk the economy dry for themselves and their cronies.

You say yer life is a bum deal
´N yer up against the wall . . .
Well, people, you aint even got no kinda
Deal at all
´Cause what they do
In Washington
They just takes care of NUMBER ONE
An´ NUMBER ONE aint YOU
You aint even NUMBER TWO

"The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing"
- Frank Zappa
(He wrote that nearly 30 years ago)

Democrats, Republicans, bah. They are all the same and they are all in it together. This "bipartisan" blsht to "save the economy" is proof positive of that. They just want to save their "jobs" (read: positions at the trough).

 

[old gaffer]

How about having SB stick to diving, its not like we do not have enough venues for right wing discourse already.

Gaffer (proudly paying taxes nonstop since the age of 16)

 

[selo]

Yes, this is straying away from diving, but you have raised valid points. We all have differing points of view on income distribution and it is fine. But when you look at the government's budget, it is amazing that only about 25% can be justified as public provision of an activity in an area where the market system would fail: defense. Ok, K-12 expenditures are also "public good". The rest is very questionable. Nothing to do with left/right; just a simple economic observation.

Recession? We'll find out months down the road. Governments have little to do with the cause of recessions (unless they do stupid things) or recoveries from them (again, a bad example is the New Deal Act that almost destroyed the U.S. economy with the suspension of competition and the forced introduction of price and wage setting).

If you have seen "Being There" (Peter Sellers' last movie in 1979) that's all you need to know about the theory of business cycles. His character Chance Gardner has a very famous quote.

 

[pilot fish]

Great movie. Loved it!

Yes, this is straying away from diving, but you have raised valid points. We all have differing points of view on income distribution and it is fine. But when you look at the government's budget, it is amazing that only about 25% can be justified as public provision of an activity in an area where the market system would fail: defense. Ok, K-12 expenditures are also "public good". The rest is very questionable. Nothing to do with left/right; just a simple economic observation.

Recession? We'll find out months down the road. Governments have little to do with the cause of recessions (unless they do stupid things) or recoveries from them (again, a bad example is the New Deal Act that almost destroyed the U.S. economy with the suspension of competition and the forced introduction of price and wage setting).

If you have seen "Being There" (Peter Sellers' last movie in 1979) that's all you need to know about the theory of business cycles. His character Chance Gardner has a very famous quote.