At first glance I thought, “huh? more tax rebates so the country could catch up on bills and credit cards? How was that economic stimulus and not pure pandering?” But digging a little deeper on the Democrat’s proposed 2nd economic stimulus reveals a very different approaches to the term ‘economic stimulus’.
With economic stimulus package 1, Bush and company were looking for small businesses to breath a sigh of relief and for you to go out and buy new televisions and electronics. The idea was that increased consumer spending and tax relief for the business sector would pull us out the downward spiral, the Democrats proposed package is not tax relief, but investment. Maybe we avoided an even worse shit storm than we’re already in, but all in all, it hasn’t seemed to right the ship toward calmer water.
Enter economic stimulus package #2. Yesterday, Democratic leaders unveiled a stimulus package with a very different approach. This approach does not address symptoms and pander to the public. Nor does this package share the wealth with ’struggling’ business, more than likely the reason Republicans aren’t on board. No, this package will include:
spending on infrastructure, the Low-Income Heating Assistance Program, an extension for unemployment benefits, aid to states facing increased Medicaid costs and food stamps, among other priorities.
Finally, some economic stimulus that will help those most in need. While, with the first economic stimulus package, I provided some economic stimulus to my local comic book shop as well as amazon.com, the rest went into savings. Not very American of me, I know, but I don’t want to fall into that mindset that we can spend our way out of things. We need true investment in infrastructure and assistance to programs that will help people get/stay on their feet and get back to work and less likely contribute to increasing crime rates out of desperation. Go Democrats!
