Monday, January 05, 2015

Stimulus money should have gone to taxpayers

When President Obama came up with the notion of throwing hundreds of billions of dollars to the winds to "stimulate" the economy, we wondered why not just send money back to the taxpayers from whence it came and let them spend it?

It seemed to us that if you want to simultaneously stimulate every sector of the economy, the quickest and easiest way to do it would be to write a check to every taxpayer — even to those who receive tax refunds on taxes they never pay. Some would save the money, but most would pay down debt or buy stuff with it. Either way, they would consume goods and services, thereby lifting all boats.

How much would you have gotten if every penny spent on stimulus then and since was sent back to the taxpayers? How about $13,500 to every American over age 18. Now that would have been a stimulus.
Instead, the government flushed hundreds of billions down the proverbial toilet, and we are much the worse for it. According to the Heritage Foundation, total stimulus spending, plus interest and debt service, will cost Americans some $3.3 trillion.

That's just about how much it takes to run the federal government for a year. Could you take a year's salary and throw it away? How long would it take you to recover from that? Likewise, American taxpayers will be many years paying down this debt.

What got stimulated? Relatively speaking, not much.

For instance, the Agriculture Department got about $28 billion to stimulate agriculture. Of that, $5 billion was used for "questionable or unsupported costs," says the department's inspector general. In other words, it was wasted.

The Rural Development Agency distributed $208 million to some 1,772 home loan borrowers with "no history of stable and dependable income" and who "did not meet repayment ability guidelines." The Forest Service dispensed $92 million in "questionable" purposes.



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