The stimulus package is out

Parent Cafe
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<p>From what I have read you have to have earned income of at least $3000 then you will get the minimum of $300 - even if you have paid no taxes.</p>

<p>As i posted on the other thread - My freshman daughter just misses the minimum earning cut off so will not get it even though she actually ended up paying taxes (just a little) because of taxable scholarships/grants and a little interest earned.</p>

<p>My son who earned more but paid no taxes because of being able to claim the Hope tax credit will get $300.</p>

<p>Happy for him but it is weird.</p>

<p>But he will spend it which is what they want. She would save it.</p>

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<p>Wow… I never would’ve thought you two to be in favor of legalizing marijuana. There’s hope for the country’s drug policy yet. ;)</p>

<p>Now if someone can just figure out a way to get Washington to realize this, without paying a million million dollars on lobbyists. :)</p>

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<p>That is entirely incorrect, and you know it (if you don’t, my esteem for you just dropped considerably). Income is determined by a great deal more than who works hardest. Some people who make very little money work 2 or 3 jobs because they have horrible education, and some people who make $500,000 per year are sitting around working relatively cushy jobs in certain business fields.</p>

<p>If all that determined income was how much one worked, this world would be a much simpler place.</p>

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<p>Kid, I saw The Dead, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin when they were still alive. You think I never rolled a few? Actually I was pretty good at it.</p>

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<p>I never smoked pot. Never. </p>

<p>Still should be legal. Crime would go down…and more importantly, people would be happier. Some people can get off the anti-depressants, which don’t work in about half the cases, and use something that works.</p>

<p>At least, that’s what people tell me. :)</p>

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<p>True, true. On the other hand, (generalization alert) most current people who hold the Republican-esque spectrum of beliefs tend to not support drug policy liberalization. That group of people is certainly not exclusive of former users - and if you point that out, you get something along the lines of “do as I say, not as I did”.</p>

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<p>I used to be a republican. Now I am in registration only. :)</p>

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<p>I used to be a republican, but then they all moved away.</p>

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<p>This thread has gone very odd - What have you all been smoking? ;)</p>

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<p>lol…</p>

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<p>“Me, too. There are so many better ways to waste $150 bil, like sending it to China (which is where it ends up anyway…)”</p>

<p>Mini, Huckabee just said this in the debate. Are you two soul mates?</p>

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<p>Just like last time, I will put this money away for when they want it back next year.</p>

<p>Unless Rice gets to it first…</p>

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<p>This is stupid. Probably government pork. I say get rid of medicare and the medicare tax. That way, we can get private insurance. Although the financially illiterate will probably squander it on some huge classless car anyway.</p>

<p>I used to care. But then I realized that both democrats and republicans are sleazy disgusting slimeballs.</p>

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<p>^ “He slimed me!”</p>

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<p>Zoozermom, is correct. I just heard Huckabee talking about this. He said that the rebate checks will be used by many to buy products made in China, and it will stimulate their economy. He suggested using this money to add 2 new lanes on I 95, so that we improve our infrastructure, and improve our productivity by not sitting in traffic.</p>

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<p>What I want to know, and I know the details aren’t out yet, is what they are basing this on? In other words, are they looking at our 2006 taxes to determine eligibility for this refund? Or will they look at 2007. </p>

<p>One of my sons was a dependant last year. Made around $6000 but was a student. Based on 2006 return, he probably won’t get a refund (if a dependent doesn’t get one) although we will get the $300 for him. But based on this year he will. I can’t imagine waiting to use 2007 returns because that will take waiting until April 15 to even start determining who gets one.</p>

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<p>Razorsharp </p>

<p>I am I correct in my reading of your posts that your objections to the package is not that the government is giving you money but that it is also giving money to others?</p>

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<p>Thumper1posted…… “Sorry…I posted this in a new thread (before I noticed this one…oops). Does this mean that my kids who both earned about $4000 this year are eligible to get $300 back? No taxes were even taken out of their earnings…and I’m not sure either of them even has to file this year. So…how would they get this money (if in fact they are eligible to receive it). AND can we count them as “our kids” or is that for 18 and under only? We do provide more than 1/2 of their support!!”</p>

<p>Thumper…… Wait a few days till we know more……this thing has to get through the whole legislative process and be singed by the president before anything is “the law……” However by mid next week I may be able to dig a little and give you some idea of what the Answers are your questions…I’ll try….</p>

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<p><a href=“MarketWatch: Stock Market News - Financial News - MarketWatch”>MarketWatch: Stock Market News - Financial News - MarketWatch;

<p>"AMERICA’S POLICY MAKERS have a plan to liven up the economy. It is a tragicomic one, akin to applying shock paddles to a patient who is quietly recovering from the flu. If the plan fails, it will create waste. If it works, it will produce something worse. </p>

<p>Let’s review the patient’s symptoms. American share prices have spent the past 135 years at an average of 15 times company profits, but for the past 20 years have fetched an average of 22 times profits. Since October prices have fallen 14%. Tuesday they fell back to average: 15 times profits. House prices have fallen, too, by 6.7% during the year ended October. That’s the largest decline in 20 years, but nowhere near large enough to bring houses back to their historic ratio of prices to rents, or prices to incomes. </p>

<p>The dollar is falling, too. It’s down 21% in five years vs. a trade-weighted basket of foreign currencies. Americans owe plenty and save little. The ratio of consumer debt to income has increased 30% over the past two decades. Americans now stash away less than 1% of discretionary income, vs. double-digit rates two decades ago. </p>

<p>Unemployment figures are tricky to read right now because of the seasonal hiring and firing that occurs around holidays. December’s jobless rate jumped to 5%, a two-year high, but the number of people filing for benefits last week hit a four-month low. </p>

<p>I’m ready for a diagnosis, and you might be, too. America has a simple case of reversion to the mean. Its shares have become affordable for the first time since investors my age (35) began buying them. Its houses are on their way. Merrill Lynch forecasts a 15% drop in prices in 2008, followed by a 10% drop in 2009. (That might be pessimistic, since price declines for houses are less common than prolonged periods of flat prices giving incomes a chance to catch up.) </p>

<p>The profit decline is a return to normalcy, too. Corporate profits in 2006 reached their highest share of economic output in 40 years, a sign of overspending and of record lending profits amid a surge in asset prices. The dollar’s value is more corrective than causal. America’s trade deficit — the amount by which its purchases from foreigners exceed its sales to them — has increased sevenfold in a decade. A cheaper dollar helps to close this gap by discouraging imports and aiding exports. Indeed, during the third quarter of last year, overseas profits of American companies grew 20% year-over-year, according to Bank of America.
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<p>continued…</p>

<p>"What the patient needs is to be left alone. Spending will slow, debts will be paid down, assets will become affordable and the dollar will reflect this progress. If a stimulus is needed, how about reducing corporate taxes? America’s companies pay the second-highest or fourth-highest share of profits among developed nations, depending on who’s doing the math. Surely a tax cut for them would spur hiring and increase incomes. That might lead to an affordable increase in spending, and to a rise in stock prices justified by a rise in profits. </p>

<p>The fiscal doctors see things differently. What Americans need, they reckon, is more borrowing to fuel more spending, and fast. On Tuesday morning, eyeing stock futures that pointed to a likely plunge in that day’s share prices, the Federal Reserve announced its biggest one-day reduction in the nation’s benchmark interest rate in two decades. The timing is peculiar, since rate cuts are typically announced at scheduled meetings, one of which was only a week away, and since the Federal Reserve Act tells us that monetary policy is meant “to promote effectively the goals of maximum employment, stable prices, and moderate long-term interest rates,” and not necessarily to make stock traders cheer. Later Tuesday, lawmakers and the president announced a big stimulus plan: $150 billion in “tax rebates” and such. </p>

<p>The Fed’s actions are designed to make borrowing less expensive. The government plan takes things a step further by borrowing on the taxpayer’s behalf. The $150 billion will bring the federal budget deficit this year to some $400 billion, or $2,800 per taxpayer. That, in turn, will be added to the $36,000 per taxpayer that the government already owes (not counting amounts owed by one arm of the government to another), a figure that has increased by $11,000 since 2002"</p>

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<p>Does that mean you are moving to my position–things ain’t that bad? I think this is the biggest overreacton to some relatively minor bad news in my history. The media has gone so far over the top in using unqualified scare words that people might actually get spooked into a recession. I heard again today an NPR reporter describe the housing market as a debacle. Maybe in Miami, Michigan, and parts of California but in many areas it is going through a modest correction (or still growing) that may be quickly cured by the lower mortgage rates, the comeback of mortgage lenders having already taken their writedowns, and interest from foreign buyers seeing our prices as cheap. Their are lots of people in Canada and England and Germany who would like a warm sunny condo in Florida when it’s on sale at half price. Same for west coast and Las Vegas properties for people from Asia.</p>