Thread: What would you do with your stimulus rebate ?

buy gold or exchange it for a more stable foreign currency... those 800 will probably be worth less than 700 by the end of the year...

especially with the fed cutting rates even more

Buy contraceptives and distribute them to illegals??????
LOL

No joke this time. I do not think I will get one. I don't know the exact limit at this time, but this year, I have had to cash in a lot of my savings for health reasons and family problems. I cashed US Bonds and IRA's . The bonds are 50% tax eligible and the IRAs are 100% tax eligible. This is just bad luck for me, but the stimulus plan, while a good idea, will not resolve the problem. Keeping jobs in America and stemming the flow of money out of the country would be a huge help compared to the plan.

Imagine what kind of stimulis our economy would feel if we enforced our immigration laws. Imagine ALL THAT MONEY that would no longer be paying for illegals freebies and ALL THAT MONEY not getting sent to mexico! Talk about an economy booster!

I would invest some in gold or silver and put it under my matress for a rainy day (I sense a hurricane coming) I would donate the rest to ANY candidate that is running for ANY office who has the Ron Paul philosophy.(which would also be an investment in gold)

I'm with Tony... Stock up on gear before they outlaw it..

I've lost so much money over the past week in the stock market. Bush's piddly rebate check isn't going to make up for anything.

I am just going to put it into a next-to-nothing interest savings account for a rainy day.

rman wrote:

How many illegals will get a check? and if not will we hear the crys from the pro- illegal groups?

That is a VERY GOOD QUESTION!

I've been pondering the so-called "stimulus" package ever since they announced considering it and the entire thing is nothing more than a "voter stimulus" sham intended to boost support for incumbents.

Almost none of the "rebate" will do anything to boost manufacturing, hiring, or durable goods consumption. Most legitimate recipients of any rebate will apply it directly to outstanding loans if they have even a modicum of common sense in these times of economic uncertainty. Therefore, the benefactors of the rebate plan will be the banks, who by the way created most of this mess in the first place by buying up insolvency in the form of bad debts. This is a bailout of the banking industry disguised as taxpayer relief.

Another facet of the "rebate" plan worth considering is exactly who gets the checks. Are they sent to the address indicated on last years tax return and tied to the filer's social security number? Can you be sure that the check will go to the intended recipient, or perhaps it will land in the hands of someone who has during the previous year falsely assumed their identity? Will E-Verify, Basic Pilot, or any other form of no-match system be used to verify a taxpayer's identity? Will that increasingly large segment of the population already benefiting from the "earned income credit" (which BTW often refunds more to those who qualify than they actually paid in taxes) also be receiving the "rebate"?

Let's look at extended unemployment compensation for a minute. What will that do other than to temporarily keep a finite number of citizens afloat in the whirlpool of despair? Will it somehow create more jobs for those who have lost their livelihood to exported manufacturing or unfair competition here at home from an illegal workforce? Isn't it a given that as recession expands into the middle class more jobs will disappear, creating an ever increasing pool of unemployment compesation applicants expecting those same extended benefits? Seems like a no-brainer to me that this is a bad idea!

Food stamp increases? Please...How many stories do you hear in your day-to-day travels about the fraud and corruption within the food stamp program? How much of that social welfare is converted in back alleys into cash or drugs? How many illegal immigrant parents of anchor babies are eating better right now than the working class poor who support them through involuntary taxation? Better to create distribution networks for actual food and screen the applicants who receive it I think...

Business tax credits are a viable approach, but only if they are based on increased hiring. Putting Americans to work is the best approach, and I don't mean through expanded government agencies. Give tax incentives to employers who verify identities and actually put more people to work providing goods and services to the rest of the country. Subsidize work and not welfare dependence.

I don't believe the idea of providing extensive state fiscal relief is a good idea. That doesn't provide incentive for states to take care of their own affairs, and instead runs the risk of creating another system of reward for bad behavior and poor fiscal policy. Citizens of states who do a good job of caring and providing for those within their jurisdiction would actually be compelled through Federal taxation to prop up other states who are either poorly managed or fall victim to corruption within their own government infrastructure. This of course (and possibly by design) would be a drag on good government at the state level all across the country.

I say if the Bush administration can come up with BILLIONS of dollars for an "economic stimulus" package, they can best use it by spending it on increased border security personnel, more immigration courts and clerical/administrative personnel to facilitate identification and deportation, and hiring Americans to go south and complete the fence they already agreed by law to construct! Now there is a workable economic stimulus package anybody can support! Even in an environment of negative job growth opportunity for employment will expand through attrition if illegals are sent back from whence they came!

Has anyone really considered the impact of a recession on the illegals who are here yet? Will employers be able to hold on to their illegal workers as pressure mounts for available jobs? Is the public ready for the struggle ahead when those employers are confronted one-by-one over the illegal workers displacing Americans who don't have enough to feed their own children or a roof to put over their heads? Will the employers already have their nest feathered by then, thanks to huge profits gained at the expense of an underpaid and illegal workforce and simply take their ball and go home, eliminating still more jobs? What will illegals do as a result of firings and business closings, pack their bags or begin breaking more serious laws due to determination to stay here and survive? Will the banks who have pandered to the illegals then push for another round of "economic stimulus" paid for by those who still have a job and further deepen the recession?

I say it is time for a line to be drawn in the sand! Time to pay the piper and deal with this mess we as citizens have allowed ourselves to be drawn into through ignorance and complacency! Keep my $1600, stop looking for more ways to expand the welfare state, recognize that devaluing the dollar by printing still more fiat currency to throw at the nation's problems is self-destructive, and honor the rule of law!

That will buy me one extra day at Vail

Originally Posted by Molly

I'm not going to put the money in the bank! I'm going to keep the cash under my mattress! If Bush is wrong and economy crashes there may be a problem getting money out of the banks! This country is making the same mistakes as ancient Rome!

I agree.....except that if our economy crashes, the value of our dollar may crash too....