February 14, 2009

Stimulate This

The entire BBM family is oozing germs in some way shape or form this weekend. My head hurts every time I look or bend down; and my spine feels like it has been a heavy bag for Ikigai or something. Mr. BBM broke out with the flu this week too and is currently sporting a straight up in the air hair-do. Giving a hoot about how we look isn't at the top of the priority list right now.

Getting more ibuprofen. That's #1. Not letting our kids, who now have coughs and runny noses, breathe on us is priority #2.

Instead of being at my father-in-law's wedding today, we're at home, sporting pj's and sweatpants. I've spent a lot of time in bed over the past few days. I even had to cancel my class on Thursday morning because there was no way I could make it to campus. I felt like a Gremlin as in "Bright lights, bright lights!" Yes, that's pretty much what I look like right now.

My head was rocking the entire week pretty much. While in bed, I've watched a lot of cooking shows and a lot of political shows.

It could be due to the flu, but I'm particularly grumpy about this so called "stimulus" bill that is about to be passed.

Bankrupting future generations. . . check.

Stimulating our economy? I find it hard to believe given some of the nonsense in the over 1000 pages of political garble.

While the politicians certainly think they know best, I have news for them. Flu-inflicted citizens can come up with better ways to stimulate the economy. Here are just two of mine. . .

1. Instead of taking approximately 45% of my income that I make as an independent contractor/recruiter which gives me little to no incentive to want to work when I get my check and have to turn around and send almost half of it to the government, why not slash how much the government is taking from me by a good 20%? With that 20% that is back in my bank account I can afford to hire someone to build me a patio this spring, landscape my barren new yard, or finish off my basement. All of those things would stimulate the economy. I hire someone, they hire helpers, and buy supplies from a company to create my housing projects. . . see how this works? Instead, my 45% will be going for things like studying honey bees and STD awareness. Stimulating things, these are not. The $13/week tax cut for families written into this bill isn't exactly going to help me build that patio.

(Let me preface #2 by saying that I understand that these are tough financial times. I understand that there are people who legitimately need help and through no fault of their own are in economic ruins right now. #2 is not about these people.)

2. How about rewarding citizens who pay their mortgages and bills on time instead of bailing out those who don't? What incentive is there to pay your bills on time when the government now plans on lowering the rates of those who can't pay the mortgages on the houses they couldn't afford in the first place? I'd like my rate lowered too. Maybe I'll just stop paying my mortgage for a couple months. . . oh wait, see there are these things called self-responsibility and pride. I take those two things to heart. But seriously, why are we rewarding those who got themselves into financial trouble? AND, if we want to help them out, great, but maybe there should be some incentives for those of us who always follow the rules, pay our bills, etc. It's simply not fair. This isn't Robin Hood, you know. My hard earned money shouldn't be going to support those who got themselves in over their heads. I should be able to keep my money, and then maybe I could hire someone whose business is hurting. See #1. See how this works? Also, there are plenty of people who are not financially hurting right now who choose to help others, either through donations to charities, donations to soup kitchens, or volunteering with Habitat for Humanity or other organizations who help others. Private citizens should be able to decide who to help and choose where their money goes within local communities. How is Washington able to determine how best to use money in my hometown? Do you trust your Governor to distribute a blank check however he/she pleases? I don't trust mine. Something tells me a certain governor will have a new car and chauffeur, minimum, before too long.

There are other ideas too. The school district where I live has some of the lowest school taxes around. Why? Because they don't raise taxes every time they need to expand or hire more teachers. Instead, they decided to seek private money in the form of sponsorships for football stadiums and gymnasiums, etc. They thought outside of the box and made it work with no government intervention. If every school did this, can you imagine how much less we'd all be paying in school taxes? Can you imagine what you'd do with that extra money? I know what I'd do with mine.

Patio.

Landscaping.

Finished basement.

Oh, and a much-wanted-by-the-girls Disney vacation.

All of these things stimulate the economy. And that's just one family! Multiply that by all the families across the country and it's at least food for thought.

Then again, getting the politicians to read these ideas would probably be even more difficult than getting them to read that 1000+ page stimulus bill (which you can't tell me any of them did before voting on it). This non-reading of the single biggest spending bill ever in history absolutely blows my mind and should disturb everyone no matter what your political affiliation. It is completely irresponsible. Don't believe me about the non-reading, watch this. . .

(If you can't see this, go here to view.)

GRR. . . My head hurts.

I know these are hot polticial times, but unless you want me to breathe my hot miserable flu on you, keep your comments respectful. Have flu, not afraid to use it. Got it? Good.