Obama To Put A Government-Subsidized Debit Card In Every Wallet?
Apparently not yet, but the idea apparently has some level of traction in the White House.
The most serious charge against the stimulus package is that it does not pack enough punch. . . .
One administration official began his explanation for why the package wasn’t bigger by quoting a line from a Gates Foundation executive: Giving money away is not as easy as it may seem. . . .
Even some of the administration’s critics buy these arguments. “It’s very difficult to spend the money quickly,” Mr. Zandi says. “There are diminishing returns.” That’s why Mr. Zandi and Mr. Feldstein are emphasizing tax cuts.
And Obama aides say they are open to adding some tax cuts that specifically encourage spending. They looked into the possibility of sending debit cards to all 150 million American households, but decided it was not yet logistically feasible. Instead, the final package may include some smaller programs, like a home-buying subsidy the Senate began discussing on Tuesday.
Am I the only one in absolute, dumbfounded awe of the fact that Obama administration officials think the biggest challenge facing the “stimulus” spending spree is the difficulty of spending all that money? The idea that “giving away money” is hard?
Who in their right minds thinks that just giving citizens money on debit cards to spend is going to fix anything?
If the objective here is to give money from the government to the citizens, why not just cut taxes? Significantly? And across the board so that all Americans get some measure of relief?
Why go through all this hokey-pokey that transfers the money around to various state and federal agencies to then be spent on projects of questionable economic significance? That round-about approach is a sure way to put a lot of additional burden on this country’s taxpayers while doing next to nothing to improve their economic situation.
Why not just be direct about it and lower the tax burden of citizens and businesses across the nation?
Probably because such a solution would mean more freedom and less government control. And the big government types just can’t have that.
