Obama's Big Tax Break

Meltdown 101: Highlights of economic stimulus plan
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090211/ap_on_bi_ge/meltdown101_stimulus_plan_2

Q: What are some of the tax breaks in the bill?

A: It includes Obama's signature "Making Work Pay" tax credit for 95 percent of workers, though negotiators agreed to trim the credit to $400 a year instead of $500 — or $800 for married couples, cut from Obama's original proposal of $1,000. It would begin showing up in most workers' paychecks in June as an extra $13 a week in take-home pay, falling to about $8 a week next January.

Well at least his kept his pledge...

A whole $8 ????? WoW that's life changing. I hope I don't blow it all in one place. Maybe now I can buy Meta that beer I owe him.

Vis wrote:A whole $8 ????? WoW that's life changing. I hope I don't blow it all in one place. Maybe now I can buy Meta that beer I owe him.

Now that's change you can believe in.

LTRT wrote:

Vis wrote:A whole $8 ????? WoW that's life changing. I hope I don't blow it all in one place. Maybe now I can buy Meta that beer I owe him.

Now that's change you can believe in.

Yeah, now stop and think about this for a minute... how many of you owe me a beer?

Seems pretty good to me!

$8 or $19.50 (weekly I suppose) isn't going to rock anyone's world but one could almost squeak breakfast for one for a week out of $20 if you shop frugally at the grocery.

or order off the dollar menu.

In truth, even the $8 a week is pretty close to the electric bill and double that for the two of us here it is the electric bill with some left over or the cable bill or one week of groceries per month, or a tank of gas per month etc... certainly helps

Vis wrote:or order off the dollar menu.

In truth, even the $8 a week is pretty close to the electric bill and double that for the two of us here it is the electric bill with some left over or the cable bill or one week of groceries per month, or a tank of gas per month etc... certainly helps

Valid...but you actually think the majority of those who are 'in trouble' would actually realize this?

Kinda like the other day, some guy was in front of me at Meijer and complaining how bad it is and how he can't find a job, after he pays he goes straight to the lottery machine.

LTRT wrote:

Kinda like the other day, some guy was in front of me at Meijer and complaining how bad it is and how he can't find a job, after he pays he goes straight to the lottery machine.

unfortunately though... his odds of getting a job and his odds of winning the lotto are getting pretty close to being the same.

LTRT wrote:Valid...but you actually think the majority of those who are 'in trouble' would actually realize this?

Kinda like the other day, some guy was in front of me at Meijer and complaining how bad it is and how he can't find a job, after he pays he goes straight to the lottery machine.

I think hear what you're saying LTRT. I won't be surprised if that guy and several hundreds of thousands of others would be unilaterally proclaimed "slow learners". I don't think that has anything to do with Obama, the recession, the stimulus bill, etc. That guy would probably be saying and doing the same things 5 years ago, as well as 5 years from now.

When we see the US Treasury handing out fist-fulls of cash to unemployed able bodied citizens and THEN we've got a problem. Assuming employment is available, $8 a week isn't going to teach anyone to spend wisely, and it won't make anyone rich, or bankrupt the government.

How long did most people hold their W. Bush $timulus checks? Remember we were encouraged to spend that stimulus, but now, less than a year later (and in a formally declared recession/depression), we're encouraged to save it or spend it wisely? Anyone that waits on the government to tell them what to do with the money is already brain dead.

How much in total did the Bush stimuli cost American taxpayers? Then add what Bush gave the US Auto Industry, and then add what was spent from the TARP program under Bush. I'm not trying to play partisan Bush over Obama but just compare what the two administrations have thrown at this recession and how much impact each has had. I predict we will all see the fallacy of trickle down economics. If Obama had thrown a ton of cash at the bottom and played the trickle up methodology, we'd see just as much failure. There's got to be a good balance of both forms of relief made available.

What disappoints me is that the Housing industry seems to have been royally screwed by 3 republican senators. It appears that the stimulus package will do nothing, or next to nothing in the next 2.5 years to help the housing construction and real estate market.

meta4 wrote:What disappoints me is that the Housing industry seems to have been royally screwed by 3 republican senators. It appears that the stimulus package will do nothing, or next to nothing in the next 2.5 years to help the housing construction and real estate market.

Bingo!

Reconsiders starting up the discussion of buying Cheetos with food stamps.