 |
Issue 4
Stimulus Plan Made Easy
There has been quite a lot of talk about the brand new $789 billion stimulus plan President Obama reeled out on February 17, but do you seriously understand it? If not here is a quick run through over what the plan is, what it really does, and what it means to you.
The stimulus plan is the biggest economic bolstering effort since President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal in the early 1930’s. The plan was overwhelmingly pushed by House Democrats, and passed without a single Republican vote on January 28. It was later trimmed down and passed in the Senate with only 3 Republican votes.
So how does this plan work?
Well the theory is that with suffering economy like ours people aren’t putting enough of their money into the system, mostly due to the fact that just can’t afford to. So this plan is aimed to give you a little boost at the end of your paycheck to let you blow a little more cash on groceries or for taking your girlfriend out to movies or a dinner on Friday nights.
How much money am I getting?
Each taxpayer individual is receiving up to $500, and families are receiving up to $1000.
So what makes this different to President Bush’s old stimulus plan?
In President Bush’s stimulus plan families and individuals received their stimulus check in one lump sum. The Obama administration saw this as a fault because people would put that money right back into their savings account and never spend it, making the plan quite difficult to put into effect. In this new stimulus package you are receiving the money over various paychecks.
So are the entire $789 billion going to our paychecks?
No of course not, only around $70 billion are going to taxpayer paychecks and the rest will be split up between new infrastructures, transportation, technology, healthcare, education, and more. There is even an $8 billion investment in high-speed rail technology (an effort to kick America’s name off the bad rail system list).
How do we know the money will be well spent?
Well to be honest, we don’t; but President Obama vowed to keep a close eye on the distribution of money, saying “If a federal agency proposes a project that will waste that money, I will not hesitate to call them out on it, and put a stop to it” in a recent article in Business Week.
Though many Republicans have cited this obvious focal point to his economic agenda as “fiscally irresponsible”, there is still a lot of support within House and Senate Democrats all hoping this plan will turn a dark picture bright again.
- Jose Silva
