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Goodbye Jesus

Bush Tax "rebates"


Mike D

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So it looks like Bush is going to try and send everyone $600 to try and get one last gasp of breath out of the economy before it keels over dead and he leaves office. The only way this is going to help the economy is if everyone spends it, and even then it may only be temporary. Otherwise if most people put it in the bank or pay down credit cards or use it to pay other bills, it's not going to do much. So I am curious on what everyone plans to do with their rebate? :shrug:

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Buy a tank of oil and gas for the car... I can't see much being left over after that.. :shrug:

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What, no clothes shopping sprees, Best Buy spending marathons or going to Home Depot for major home improvement items? What kind of an American are you? :grin:

 

You're right though, it's probably not enough money to do much with :shrug:

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Copper clad lead. Copious quantities.

 

That and a subscription to, umm, er, ah.. Nevermind..

 

kFL

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Exactly what Im not supposed to do, hide it like a miser then get it all in ones. Maybe I can fill a wheelbarrow to get some cabbage when inflation hits Weimar like levels. :shrug:

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Ironically, should spouse and I qualify for rebates, they'll go right back to the IRS to pay off some tax liability we both owe from last year. So much for economic stimulus from us, anyway...

 

I'm very skeptical of the actual impact the Bushco rebate will have. I keep seeing that folks can get "up to" $600, and I'm always wary of that phrase: up to. It's' a nice little deceptive phrase advertisers like to throw around in order to make a small and impotent sale or rebate look better than it actually will be. Yeah, sure, some folks will actually get $600, but I bet the bulk of us will get some piddly little crap amount. I expect chump change, frankly.

 

And anyway I get the feeling it's a desperate band-aid measure, a lame duck effort to make it look like Bushco remotely gives a shit about the hemorrhaging economy.

 

But I'm not cynical. Or bitter. Oh yeah. Not me. :Wendywhatever:

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If I get $600. and like Gwenmead said that's a big if, that's nothing. What "can" you do with it? I'm sorry I'm in no way wealthy, but 600 dollars is crap, it wouldn't pay for much of my eldest tuition, you cannot buy a major appliance you can barely buy a small appliance. Not only could you not buy a car, but it won't even pay to have the trasmission fixed in the car I have.

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And anyway I get the feeling it's a desperate band-aid measure, a lame duck effort to make it look like Bushco remotely gives a shit about the hemorrhaging economy.

 

I'm not in total disagreement or agreement. Bush and company have done squat for fiscal responsibility in the last 7 years.

 

However, is it ever a bad idea for people to keep their own money? Granted, I think it would have been better for Uncle Sam to not take it in the first place, but it'll be nice to have $600 back in my own control.

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I say we all hang onto the money with both hands and surely this will cause them to hand back even more money. Then we hang onto that money and so on and so on then we'll all be rich I tells ya! <evil hand wringing>

 

mwc

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I'm not in total disagreement or agreement. Bush and company have done squat for fiscal responsibility in the last 7 years.

 

However, is it ever a bad idea for people to keep their own money? Granted, I think it would have been better for Uncle Sam to not take it in the first place, but it'll be nice to have $600 back in my own control.

 

More government illusions...

 

You're being mislead. W is borrowing this money, it will have to be paid back, which is the joke of it all. When the time comes to pay it back you'll be blaming who ever the current occupant of the white house is.

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Bush Budget Would Nearly Freeze Domestic Spending

 

By Jeremy Pelofsky

Reuters

January 31, 2008

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush will propose freezing most domestic spending in his upcoming 2009 budget and will seek big cost savings from government health care programs, a U.S. official said on Thursday.

 

In a more than $3 trillion budget to be unveiled on Monday, Bush wants to limit to less than 1 percent increases in spending on discretionary programs like transportation and education, but excluding national security, the official said.

 

He will try to extract some $178 billion in savings from Medicare, the health care program for the elderly and disabled, in part by freezing the reimbursement rates for health care providers for three years and requiring wealthier Americans to pay more for prescription drugs.

 

He will also seek $17 billion in savings from Medicaid, the health care program for the poor, according to the official, who declined to be named because the budget has not yet been submitted to Congress.

 

Bush has been criticized by some members of his own Republican party for tolerating big spending increases in the first several years of his administration. On his watch, the budget shifted from surpluses to deficits that reached a high of $413 billion in 2004.

 

In the last three years, the deficits have narrowed but that is about to change. The budget is expected to forecast deficits of $400 billion for both 2008 and 2009.

 

And Congress is considering a $150 billion economic stimulus package -- backed by Bush -- that would give Americans tax rebates in an effort to ward off a recession. The package would further add to the deficit.

 

Bush's proposed cuts to the health programs drew immediate fire from Democrats who said they were targeted at the wrong people.

 

"The president's cuts are exactly the wrong medicine when the cost of health care and the number of uninsured continue to rise and families are feeling economically insecure," said House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat.

 

The budget to be unveiled on Monday will fund government operations for the 2009 fiscal year which begins October 1.

 

(Reporting by Jeremy Pelofsky, editing by Philip Barbara)

 

This article and a picture of an Alfred E. Neuman clone can be found HERE.

 

Lessee...let me get this straight...150 billion in rebates paid for with essentially 195 billion in Medicare & Medicaid savings, correct? So, in essence, individually speaking, G.W. wants to give up to $600.00 per person to a large group of people that are most likely using and depending on Medicare and Medicaid. ...and then he wants to take away approximately $800.00 worth of allowance in Medicare and Medicaid from each of these people. ...and then he wants these very same people to go out and spend their $600.00 rebate at Wally World etc., even though the majority of these people could ill afford to spend much of ANYthing before they were allowed to reap the supposed benefits of this wonderful "economic stimulus package". So, now these people are about $800.00 MORE in the hole, but they are happy because they imagine their borders are safe and they now have Playstation 3's and a few wayyyy cool video games to occupy their time while they wait to have their power turned off because they can't afford that anymore. Am I understanding the Neocon-Artist's reasoning correctly here? If so...way ta go mellonheads...Freakin' brilliant! :banghead:

 

As far as what I would do with my rebate? It would go towards helping my 84 year old mother pay for the new cost increase in her meds. :angry:

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Regardless of how much I get, the first thing I'll be doing with it is paying off bills. After that, assuming I got the full $600 and depending on how much is left, I won't likely spend any more than $200 maximum on "consumer goods." The bulk of it in any case will be going straight into savings to restore the safety cushion I like to have which has been nickeled and dimed away over the past several months to the point I'm essentially living paycheck to paycheck. HATE.

 

'Course, all of this is really just a part of going through the motions until I can get my degree and get the hell out of here. Being an expat won't mean I'll escape the results of the inevitable fall of the Amerikan Empire, but it should soften the blow to some degree.

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You're being mislead. W is borrowing this money, it will have to be paid back, which is the joke of it all.

Very true. I always get a laugh when I hear someone call Democrats "tax and spend liberals"..... the Republican party spends just as much, they just borrow the money instead of tax us.

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You're being mislead. W is borrowing this money, it will have to be paid back, which is the joke of it all.

Very true. I always get a laugh when I hear someone call Democrats "tax and spend liberals"..... the Republican party spends just as much, they just borrow the money instead of tax us.

 

Well this last "republican" has out spent any democrat before him... that's a Fact!! Mccain will be worse then Bush... I really what to know who's voting for this guy and why...? WTF

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Ironically, should spouse and I qualify for rebates, they'll go right back to the IRS to pay off some tax liability we both owe from last year. So much for economic stimulus from us, anyway...

 

Yea, I'm in the same boat! The government borrowing money to help me pay back the IRS the money I originally owe them! Ha! If Bush finds out he may cancel our rebates. Can you keep a secret?

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Being an expat won't mean I'll escape the results of the inevitable fall of the Amerikan Empire, but it should soften the blow to some degree.

The fall of the Amerikan Empire? Yes it's a mess but do you really think it's in that bad of shape?

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Either pay down debt or buy silver. Gold is okay, but it's shot up the last several months. On the upswing, silver typically takes a while to catch up to its historic ratio to gold of about 15:1. Haven't checked lately but two weeks ago it was something like 52:1. So the ounces I paid $16 for will be $50-$60.

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Being an expat won't mean I'll escape the results of the inevitable fall of the Amerikan Empire, but it should soften the blow to some degree.

The fall of the Amerikan Empire? Yes it's a mess but do you really think it's in that bad of shape?

 

I'm not saying it'll happen next week, nor even necessarily in the next few years, but it's really one of those "It doesn't take a genius to spot a goat in a herd of sheep" propositions. Our economy is tanking faster than the Titanic, the dollar is hemorrhaging value on the world market, we're mired in two endless wars with no real hope of victory (as defined by those waging them) possible, and no one in any position to actually do anything about it seems to have even the slightest desire to.

 

I'll admit, it's not necessarily a done deal. IF (and that is a colossal "if") our "leaders" in Washington are willing to bite the bullet and forsake their magical illusion of an ever-growing economy, commit to serious economic reform to the tune of a large annual budgetary surplus such as we witnessed during the Clinton Administration (yes, rich people, that means you'll have to pay higher taxes), stop spending like it's going out of style and get the hell out of Iraq and Afghanistan (which means leaving behind both the oil and the poppy crops, whether corporate interests and the DEA like it or not)--essentially, if they're willing to pull their heads out of their asses--things could be turned around.

 

Otherwise, the situation is going to continue to deteriorate until it reaches the point at which it's no longer in the best interest of the other developed nations currently propping us up to continue to do so. A U.S. economic collapse would certainly impact the economies of virtually every other even partially-developed nation in the world, but if we keep on the path we're careening recklessly down now, there will eventually come a point at which it will be less damaging for them to cut their losses and get out rather than be drug all the way down with us.

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I'm not saying it'll happen next week, nor even necessarily in the next few years, but it's really one of those "It doesn't take a genius to spot a goat in a herd of sheep" propositions. Our economy is tanking faster than the Titanic, the dollar is hemorrhaging value on the world market, we're mired in two endless wars with no real hope of victory (as defined by those waging them) possible, and no one in any position to actually do anything about it seems to have even the slightest desire to.

Yeah I don't disagree with a lot of what you said. And I can't see that things are going to change anytime soon, since Bush's policy on most things seems to have been "stay the course" on any and every issue, regardless of the consequences. Hopefully whoever takes over will make some effort to get things back on track, although I am not holding my breath.

 

I don't think things could ever get so bad that I would consider leaving.... although I guess "bad" is relative and I might not know until we got there.

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John Mauldin, no dummy, seems to be less concerned about the economy: http://www.safehaven.com/article-9383.htm

 

He says we are headed for a recession. He agrees we are at the start of a bear market. But he seems to think it's not going to be the end of the American empire as we know it. His words are "we'll muddle through..." Interesting whether you agree or not.

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I don't think things could ever get so bad that I would consider leaving.... although I guess "bad" is relative and I might not know until we got there.

It helps to understand my primary motivation for getting out isn't to escape so much as it is to explore. Were the U.S. the Shangri-La many would like to believe it is, I'd be just as determined to move and live abroad. There's a whole big world out there full of things, places and people I don't know and can't wait to learn about, and though seeing things here take a turn for the worse as I have stokes the flames a bit, that fire would burn regardless.

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