Question for Scorpion

No offense to anyone else on this board but I have a question for Scorpion and only scorpion. I hold his opinion in high regard here and would like his input before anyone else responds. Thanks.

Please explain to all of us why the government is bailing out the banks and wallstreet but not giving the money to the taxpayers. Please explain to us why giving the money to the taxpayers wouldn't be the best thing to get this economy started again.

party42 wrote:

No offense to anyone else on this board but I have a question for Scorpion and only scorpion. I hold his opinion in high regard here and would like his input before anyone else responds. Thanks.

Please explain to all of us why the government is bailing out the banks and wallstreet but not giving the money to the taxpayers. Please explain to us why giving the money to the taxpayers wouldn't be the best thing to get this economy started again.

Well, I'll give it a shot. I'm going to make an exception and dispense with the usual links for this one, because it would simply take too long to answer. The other posters should feel free to fact check me on this.

I'm going to split this up into 2 parts, because the TARP program (for banks) is totally separate from the Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

party42 wrote:

Please explain to us why giving the money to the taxpayers wouldn't be the best thing to get this economy started again.

This idea would never fly. You've seen the outrage at simply providing a tax break to low income wage earners. Can you imagine the reaction to giving tens of thousands of dollars to these people? This would be seen as a massive "redistribution of wealth," and rightfully so. I can hear the cries of "Communism!" at the very idea of such a tranfer.

The best way to explain why we need a massive investment in our country's infrastucture is to take a little stroll down memory lane. When Clinton left office, he turned what was then a massive deficit into a surplus which were projected to grow each year for at least 10 years.

That was the perfect time for investing in our country's infrastructure. Even back then, we had decaying highways and a soon to be obsolete electric grid. We've all seen the result of failing to fix the levies in Louisiana and failing to maintain our nation's bridges.

So how did we get to this point? You can trace it back to the across the board Bush tax cuts. The surplus disappeared immediately. There was no investment in anything, just tax cuts which benefited mainly the wealthy. There was a small recession at the time, and the tax cuts to the middle class probably helped out a bit, but there was certainly no need to provide tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans. There was even a full scale attempt to make the tax cuts permanent, regardless of the state of our economy.

To make a long story short, that wiped out the "surplus," and killed any hope of making investments in our future. Shortly afterward, the Administration decided to start a costly war in Iraq, without any kind of tax to fund it. That was just irresponsible.

We never made the investments needed to begin to shift away from fossil fuels, neglected our educational system, and allowed the Health Insurance situation to become a crisis. These problems are even more critical than they were a decade ago.

The Reinvestment and Recovery Act is at least a step in the right direction.

Now about TARP....I'm not an economist, but I don't think that there is any question that we need the banks to resume lending... Without that, our economy will eventually come to a complete standstill. I feel that the Bush Administration bears respomnsiblity for the crisis, if only because they let things get so out of control.

It also looks like they didn't spend the first $350 billion in a responsible way, and that's unforgivable. There is absoultely no excuse for not knowing exactly how that money was spent. At least we will know how the second $350 billion is spent. That's something, I guess.

I hope I answered your questions. If not, then let me know. If anyone else has any comments, feel free to post them.

Well I speak only for myself when I say, too bad if some are upset about handing out money to the ones that aren't wealth. I think there are a lot more unwealthy people that are upset about handing it over to the wealthy.

I understand that it will never fly, as you say. Do you not think that if it would it wouldn't help the economy?

The point that I was tryng to make in my post is that, above all else, this country needs to invest in our future.

I think the President summed it up nicely in his speech...

Quote :

The fact is, our economy did not fall into decline overnight. Nor did all of our problems begin when the housing market collapsed or the stock market sank. We have known for decades that our survival depends on finding new sources of energy. Yet we import more oil today than ever before. The cost of health care eats up more and more of our savings each year, yet we keep delaying reform. Our children will compete for jobs in a global economy that too many of our schools do not prepare them for. And though all these challenges went unsolved, we still managed to spend more money and pile up more debt, both as individuals and through our government, than ever before.

In other words, we have lived through an era where too often, short-term gains were prized over long-term prosperity; where we failed to look beyond the next payment, the next quarter, or the next election.

I absolutely agree this country needs to invest in our future in a big way. I heard the speech you reference and I agree with it as well.

What I have a problem with is the last "stimulous" check a lot of us got 8-9 months ago. What was that for? It was such a small amount it didn't do anything to stimulate the economy. By the time everyone got their check a lot of people had to use it just to pay their regular bills. I still believe if they had given even several thousands to each taypayer that would have helped this economy.

I'm sick of the trickle down BS that these rich, pompous politicians keep handing us. I still say bailing out the taxpayers is the best way to go right now while still investing in our future as a country.