Tuesday, January 15, 2008

How Do You Rebate Money You Don't Have?

The US economy is either in a recession or teetering on the edge of one. Every leading American paper, even the real right wingers, forecasts the country will be in a hard recession come summer in any case.

Congress knows what's happening, so does the White House. That's led them both to scramble about looking for ways to stimulate economic activity. Even Bush, after having spent the first seven years of his presidency catering to the "Haves and the Have-Mores" now claims to see the need to help working and middle-class Americans (as an aside, since when has the middle-class not actually been made up of working people just with slightly larger paycheques?).

Suddenly there's talk about tax rebates for the lowly working folk. Rebates? Surely the notion of a rebate implies the return of something but what if there's nothing to return? A government mired in debt and sitting atop other layers of government mired in debt is already thoroughly in the hole. To rebate money to the taxpaying class the feds will have to borrow money on the workers' behalf that the taxpaying workers will have to repay along with interest at some point in the future unless they manage to pawn that little bag of nastiness off onto their kids and grandkids.

Bear in mind that those talking about rebates are also fully intent on making permanent Bush's tax cuts for the rich and continuing the bottomless money pit called the Iraq war. Their idea of economic stimulus is to come up with ways to make their government even more indebted than it already is.

And these are supposed conservatives. What ever happened to the "conserve" part?

4 comments:

McGuire said...

Two things, first the ones proposing the rebates are the Democrats, not the GOP

Secondly, i'm shocked to find myself agreeing with you for the 2nd time in as many weeks. How do you give back money you don't have??

The Mound of Sound said...

You see McGuire, you don't have to look too hard to find common ground with most people. It's like we both believe in the theory of gravity. I'm sure we could find all manner of things on which we would agree. Our differences are probably relatively narrow by contrast.

Anonymous said...

Uh.. progressive is that like leftist?

The Mound of Sound said...

Progressive is just one point on the political spectrum, anon. There are plenty of points on both the left and right of progressive. Taken far enough, they both arrive at the same, totalitarian end.
That you ask this question leads me to guess you're American. It's astounding how so many people in the United States have, particularly since 9/11, come to the idea that the left is the threat to their wellbeing.
Let's put it this way - there's nothing remotely left in either al-Qaeda or the Bush regime or the House of Saud or Mubarak or Olmert. They're all extremely doctrinaire using intimidation and violence to coerce compliance. None of them is remotely left but it is amusing to see people try to draw that link. If you want to look at the "left", look at Norway. That's left and it's infinitely more successful for its people than anything achieved in the USA.