An economic stimulus plan should concentrate on creating middle-class jobs. This economy will continue to tank until we get unemployment back under 5 or 6%. As I've said in a previous post, if you've lost your job you're not going to buy anything; if you're worried about losing your job (and that's everybody who hasn't already lost it), you're not going to buy anything. If nobody buys anything stores and other companies will close. States will go bankrupt trying to pay unemployment benefits (and some already are). Nothing else matters if we don't have jobs for the middle class. Nothing.
I like parts of President Obama's stimulus plan. I agree that we need to spend some money on infrastructure. It will create jobs and at least the taxpayer will see something tangible for their money. However, construction projects like those proposed will primarily create jobs for men. What about us ladies?
I also like the environmental aspects of this plan, such as doubling the amount of power produced from renewable resources in three years and making federal buildings more energy efficient. Great ideas that will either create jobs or save the taxpayers money.
I like the idea that health care coverage would be provided for people who lose their jobs. The leading cause of bankruptcy is medical bills. We have to get these costs under control in this country and provide coverage for catastrophic health care costs. It is simply the right thing to do.
But the tax breaks I don't like. Tax breaks are nice, everybody likes them. But we're living in a time when unemployment may well hit double digits; state and federal budgets are already in crisis; and we're spending over a trillion dollars of taxpayer money that we don't have on the bank bailout and this stimulus plan. Look what happened when Bush gave us all a paltry $600 a piece. It did squat to help this economy, and that's because most people either put it in savings or paid bills with it. The same thing will happen with the tax break.
Anything else that is in this bill that has nothing to do with creating jobs, health care coverage or beefing up our long-neglected environmental protections should be taken out.
We simply cannot afford this plan, but we can't afford not to do something. We just need to do the right things.
