Stimulus Stuff

So Hillary Clinton puts out an economic stimulus package which basically would enable Americans to help keep their homes and deal with rising unemployment and recession worries. And Obama is being encouraged to do the same. Of course, these are sitting Senators who have the ability to do more than talk about leading.

Clinton's plan, as well as the bipartisanplan being discussed in Congress, seems to me to be partially concerned with buying favor in an election year. While Bush wants to permanently extend the tax cuts (a dead letter), the Dems want rebates and help for low-income citizens.

Democrats are considering three ideas — an extension of unemployment insurance, expansion of food stamps and perhaps most importantly, rebate checks or more for every single taxpayer. The amount of these checks is being debated, but they would be similar to the $300 checks taxpayers received in 2001. President Bush has not been specific about his ideas beyond calling for a permanent extension of his 2001 tax cuts, which expire in 2010.

I guess this goes back to what I wrote about the shocking payout of $115 million dollars to failed CEO Angelo Mozilo of Countrywide. These things the Democrats are proposing are probably needed, but what we really need is to get control of this skyrocketing CEO pay that rewards wealth over responsibility. This creates so many inefficiencies in the economy that any effort to use government to bring inequality back into balance will fall short. They can't print enough money. I don't think any Presidential candidate would lose votes talking about this issue.

UPDATE: This is a terrific rundown of how fucked this economy truly is, and how the solutions are to be found in resurrecting areas of the economy that can provide some stability as we dig ourselves out of this mess. It is Stupid's economy, truly.