Bront's Forums

Um, there isn't supposed to be a check like last time.  It's a combo of tax cuts, discounts, and other benefits.

I'm still waiting for the $300 the US Gov said they owed me and would have in my account by now.

$8000 tax credit if you buy your first house (As in, deduct $8000 from taxes you have to pay), etc.

For me they took out about $30 less from my by-weekly paycheck, which is great if they really reduced my taxes to match.  I'm concerned because when the Bush tax cuts expire my taxes will go up by about 2k a year and this is about 780 a year.  This year though, I might pay almost no federal tax.  I still get killed in fed med/ee and fed oasdi/ee, where they take $130.  I'd like to see real satutues, not Bronts wishful thinking of 'tax cuts, discounts, and other benefits.' 

I'm also not convinced $30 in my paycheck will cause me to spend like the (for me) $1200 stimulus check I got.  That was a down payment on a used (american made) car, $30 I'm just not disaplined enough make much of a spending change.  (and because I don't trust the government I'll likely have it automatically transfer to savings and only spend it after I know my 2009 tax return will match)   

This sentence sums it up for me. 

The stimulus package.  Code word for wild spending and increase public sector jobs and entitlements.  If we each took this philosophy with our checkbooks, effectively spending our grandchildren’s life savings we would rightfully be called all kinds of bad names.

extended those cuts a few years I believe.  You believe but really can't say what cuts are those, how many years, there is no specific information in what you assert.

someone I trust to generally and I accept the unidentified person is trustworthy.  As I accept you are trustworthy.  I can show without much effort the slippery language that surrounds the stimulus package and the first budget under the current administration.  A great example is the proclamation there are no ear marks.  There are a ton of ear marks, all they did was take the names off the ear marks and pretend it is not an ear mark to lets say, spend a few million to preserve the natural habitat of the San Francisco Field Mouse.  Clearly a pet project of the speaker of the house but because they take her name off of it, it's not an ear mark.  So I don't accept the politicians as trustworthy and I question if my otherwise trustworthy friend has critically analyzed the great give away labeled 'stimulus package'.

Even New Zealand wont escape the new world order...

Here's a nice article on some of the effects of the stimulus package.

Linkie.

I don't see anything about the Bush tax cuts being extend, but I'll look further when I have the time.

The general idea is that this goes on for 2-3 years (that's approximately the time table to spend/deal with most of this money).  Idealy, by that time, the good that the money influx does for the economy will have helped to turn things around (or have them heading in a positive direction), at which point you have generated additional tax revenue though jobs and businesses again.

Beyond that, the US infrastructure is severely lacking compared to nations with similar development.  Our roads could be in better shape, our internet/broad band infrastructure is way behind (we generally pay more for less by a large margin), and it's gotten bad enough where it took a bridge accident to get us to even look at it.    The improved infrastructure will improve the quality of life for everyone, the jobs generated will help ease unemployment burdens, and eventually, an improved infrastructure could help business succeed where they otherwise might have failed.

Of course, those are all ideal condition things.  This I believe is targeted better than the banking bailout plan (which if done right, could have MADE the government money over a 5-10 year period), but we'll see.

At the moment, I'm more worried about next month than next year.