What does it mean?

My wife asked me yesterday a very thought provoking question: "I don't really understand the stimulus thing, what does it mean?"

For people who do not follow politics much or at all, this is what I understand just happened yesterday with the approval of the stimulus package:

The short answer is the government is going to spend 790 billion dollars, in an attempt to stimulate the economy.

It really means is the Government gets to decide who gets to spend your money, forcing inevitable higher taxes and more government control over you and your family. This action forces the people to become less reliant on themselves and more reliant on the government.

Your money the bill is giving away (the highlights):

Welfare

$40 billion to provide extended unemployment benefits through Dec. 31, and increase them by $25 a week
$20 billion to increase food stamp benefits by 14 percent
$4 billion for job training
$3 billion in temporary welfare payments
$14.2 billion to give one-time $250 payments to Social Security recipients, poor people on Supplemental Security Income, and veterans receiving disability and pensions.

Infrastructure
$27.5 billion for highway and bridge construction and repair (Wasn't this whole bill supposed to be about highway and bridge construction)

$8 billion for construction of high-speed railways
$1.3 billion for Amtrak (hasn't made a profit in my lifetime)

$4 billion for public housing improvements (paint over the spray paint I guess)

$7.2 billion to bring broadband Internet service to under served areas (These are the same people who watch TV over the air and can't figure out how to buy a box to convert to digital)

Health Care

$24.7 billion to provide a 65 percent subsidy of health care insurance premiums for the unemployed under the COBRA program

$86.6 billion to help states with Medicaid

$19 billion to modernize health information technology systems (Doctors know when NOT to provide health care, such as when you are to old or too sick- rationing)


State Block Grants
$8.8 billion in aid to states to defray budget cuts (we are paying for other states that cannot balance a budget)

Energy
About $50 billion for energy programs, focused chiefly on efficiency and renewable energy, including:

$5 billion to weatherize modest-income homes (weatherstripping)
$11 billion toward a so-called "smart electricity grid" to reduce waste (so the government can track your electrical usage and curtail it anytime they wish)
$6 billion to subsidize loans for renewable energy projects
$6.3 billion in state energy efficiency and clean energy grants
$4.5 billion make federal buildings more energy efficient
$2 billion in grants for advanced batteries for electric vehicles (which we will be forced to pay for again when they decide the batteries are a hazardous waste)

Education
$44.5 billion in aid to local school districts to prevent layoffs and cutbacks, with flexibility to use the funds for school modernization and repair (looks like District 51 doesn't need to worry about schools now)

Housing
$4 billion to repair and make more energy efficient public housing projects (Solar panels "in the hood")
$2 billion for the redevelop foreclosed and abandoned homes
$1.5 billion for homeless shelters (if we are paying 2 billion to redevelop abandon homes why don't we give them to the homeless and save this 1.5 billion)
$2 billion to pay off a looming shortfall in public housing accounts (Why is there a shortfall?)

Science
$3 billion for the National Science Foundation for basic science and engineering research (Economics is a science right, maybe we should study that)
$1 billion for NASA
$1.6 billion for research in areas such as climate science, biofuels, high-energy physics and nuclear physics (Our gift to Al Gore and the global warming crowd)

Homeland Security
- $2.8 billion for homeland security programs, including $1 billion for airport screening equipment.

Law Enforcement
- $4 billion in grants to state and local law enforcement to hire officers and purchase equipment (I bet this might be a new police station for Grand Junction)

Tax Credit

About $116 billion for a $400 per-worker, $800 per-couple tax credits in 2009 and 2010. For the last half of 2009, workers could expect to see about $13 a week less withheld from their paychecks starting around June (OH my gosh 13 whole dollars WOW!)

Millions of Americans who don't make enough money to pay federal income taxes could file returns next year and receive checks. Individuals making more than $75,000 and couples making more than $150,000 would receive reduced amounts (less than $13 oh my, you are in trouble).

AMT (the tax created to screw the rich. Now so many people are "rich" they have to cut it, hummmmm maybe the Bush years weren't so bad huh)
- About $70 billion to spare about 24 million taxpayers from being hit with the alternative minimum tax in 2009. The change would save a family of four an average of $2,300. The tax was designed to make sure wealthy taxpayers can't use credits and deductions to avoid paying any taxes. But it was never indexed to inflation, so families making as little as $45,000 could get significant increases without the change. Congress addresses it each year, usually in the fall.

Expand College Credit

- About $14 billion to provide a $2,500 expanded tax credit for college tuition and related expenses for 2009 and 2010. The credit is phased out for couples making more than $160,000.

Child Tax Credit (more welfare, different name)

- About $15 billion to provide the $1,000 child tax credit to more families that don't make enough money to pay income taxes.

Earned Income Credit

$4.7 billion to expand the Earned Income Tax Credit for low-income families with three or more children. (Now we reward people for having more children they can not afford)

Home Buyer Credit

$6.6 billion to repeal a requirement that a $8,000 first-time home buyer tax credit be paid back over time for homes purchased from Jan. 1 to Nov. 30, unless the home is sold within three years.

Auto Sales

- $1.7 billion to makes sales taxes on paid on new cars, light trucks, recreational vehicles and motorcycles tax deductible through the end of the year (I'm sure that will make a difference in Toyota's bottom line)

Renewable Energy

About 20 billion in tax incentives for renewable energy and energy efficiency over 10 years, including extending tax credits for energy produced from wind, geothermal, hydropower and landfill gas; grants to build renewable energy facilities; tax credits for purchases of energy-efficient furnaces, windows and doors, or insulation; tax credit for families that purchase plug-in hybrid vehicles.

Debt Limit
_Increases the statutory limit on the national debt by $789 billion, to $12.1 trillion (12.1 TRILLION, I wonder who wants to loan the US 12.1 trillion...oh that's right we just print the money that won't cause inflation....yeah right)


The final version bill was forced through Congress, without giving the Congressmen and Senators any time to ACTUALLY READ the damn thing, so this is a list of the Colorado delegation that actually voted for the bill without even knowing what was in it:

Colorado Senator Bennet
Colorado Senator Udall

Colorado District 1 Representative - Diana DeGette
Colorado District 2 Representative - Jarad Polis
Colorado District 3 Representative - John Salazar
Colorado District 4 Representative - Betsy Markey
Colorado District 7 Representative - Ed Perlmutter

Contact them if you have some ocean-front property on the Mesa you need to sell, they won't read the contract anyway.