Comments on Saving to Inve$t: The Next Economic Stimulus Payment

Obama is doing some great work. Hope he will bring...

2009-06-02T08:25:08.970-04:00

Obama is doing some great work. Hope he will bring the economy to its past glory

I can't believe that some lenders and mortage comp...

2009-04-25T18:39:00.000-04:00

I can't believe that some lenders and mortage companies will not help those people who have existing loans unless they have fannie may or freddie amc loans. They put you into a wait list for 40 to 50 days for any type of assistance. This only helped certain people and left the rest in the dark. And the credit card companies are getting us as well. They just keep adding fees and this is not helping the economy , it's hurting it.People can't afford these with the way jobs are now and cuts others are taking. We will not rebound from this at the current pace or will we anytime soon. Homeowners pay all the tax on home value that continues to fall and we continue to pay the higher price. We are still failing and I don't see us moving forward for many years unless someone steps in and stops it all.

Well said to the English guy who has lived here si...

2009-04-10T06:16:00.000-04:00

Well said to the English guy who has lived here since he was three and to some of the anonymous blogs above saying send all immigrants back to their own countries, learn to speak or spell English yourself first. If you know of any illegal immigrants working in this country then call the Dept of Homeland Security and Immigration services because they are who deal with immigration in this country. Do you know that you cannot get a drivers license or ID card in this country unless you prove your nationality here and therefore immigrants can only get a drivers license for the remaining days they are allowed to stay here in their passport or if they have applied for immigration and received a work permit which is all very expensive these days. Once they have a work permit they are issued with a ss card and have to pay taxes like everyone else. If an employer is paying out wages to an illegal immigrant then they are obviously doing this because they are paying below minimum wage for cheap labor with in a way helps are economy by keeping them in business and making more profit but I guess it also takes jobs away from Americans or legal immigrants. It is these employers who are also breaking the law and if they are caught they are in serious trouble and then that puts others jobs and lives at risk. Most legal immigrants especially the mexican ones work damn hard and use their money on their families and their homes and this is good for the economy. They harm no one and they tend to do the jobs that a large number of lazy people would not do because they are hard labor jobs and these lazy people think it is beneaf them to do such a job for the hourly pay offered. If you don't have a job go out and get one no matter what it is and nuckle down, be sensible and dont go spending your your money on luxuries in life or alcohol, cigarettes or drugs. I personally hate the employees who are known drug addicts or who think its great and does no harm to smoke a bit of weed but when I look at these people they don't take care of their hygene or appearance and don't do their jobs to the best of their ability and then I think of the suffering decent would be hard working people who should so have the jobs of these drug addicts. The government should offer free drug testing to all employers for their new hires and every three months for existing employees and anyone who tests positive for any substance abuse should be immediately let go and a mark should be made against their background until they prove by way of some kind of clean up program or abstinence from substance and a negative retesting until that mark is removed. Backgrounds should be held by a government agency which should be free to employers to check out and it should be mandatory from all employers to do background checks and receive special codes attached to the employees SS number for them to work. A stimulus payment is really not going to do any good as some of you have said but if it was means tested and not given to the taxpayers who earn good salaries who can afford the things they want and more was given to the ones who earn less and the stimulus payment increased the less you earn then maybe the people who are struggling could use the money to ease their poverty, keep their homes and put food on the table and that would improve the economy by delaying or avoiding forclosures, welfare, ill health and the strain on medical services and give a boost to the food industry of this country which in turn would create jobs or save them and bring costs down. Do you think Donald Trump got a stimulus payment of $600 last year? yes he probably did and do you think it made a difference to him? I don't think he would even think or notice he got one. Do you think any Hollywood actors got them? How many $100,000 salary people got a stimulus payment or even $50,000 salary people. What is this payment to them, a ship in the ocean thats what!. It would of been better to give their payments to someone who earns $10,000 a year, so give them $1200 or even $1800 in part cash and part voucher scheme so they could use the voucher to settle a credit card or mortgage arrears and bring down their cripling interest rates or wipe out the credit card debt altogether. By using some kind of voucer system this stimulus money paid by voucher could not be used for anything but debt relief or housing or car insurance etc. What can you do with food stamps? You can only buy food! get my drift. The banks and credit cards and loan companies would be getting a bailout through their customers and not put directly in the pockets of the banks who in turn don't use the money to help the struggling customers they have. $600 Billion to banks to write off bad debts? whose bad debt did they write off? Did Mr Joe Blogs who was at risk of losing his home get his mortgage arrears written off because he lost his job or because he was late paying his credit card minimum payment by 2 days and the credit card put his interest rate up to 27% because of it and now he is finding it even harder to make a payment. Ordinary Americans or legal working residents should be helped here and soon

Ok some of you are making some rather ignorant rem...

2009-04-03T16:11:00.000-04:00

Ok some of you are making some rather ignorant remarks. First, not all immigrants are ILLEGAL immigrants. The ones that come over here legally pay a lot of money to come here and do in fact pay taxes. I was born in England but my parents immigrated LEGALLY when I was 3 years old. My parents have paid taxes and filled out tax forms every year. I am 35 years old now. I am not a US citizen (yet) but would like to become one. I joined the US military when I was 17 years old. I find it very interesting that I could fight and die for this country but I cannot vote. I have not become a citizen yet because I got injured in the military and have a limited income and cannot afford it. So those of you telling me to go back to my own country this is more my country than my own country is. I have never even gone back to England and do not know my relatives. You say to send ALL immigrants back to our own countries well that is a very ignorant remark. NOT ALL IMMIGRANTS ARE ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS AND MOST PAY TAXES!!!

ANGRY AT STUPID REMARKS

We are heading into another Great Depression. And ...

2009-03-30T16:53:00.000-04:00

We are heading into another Great Depression. And it all has to do with population. When it all comes down to it. I don't Care if we get the stimulus or not. We are just gonna end up in the same HOLE!!!! We need population controll. And to send all the illegals back where they came from. the economy would be better than it is now. Also if the goverment would quit so called "trying "to help other countries so much we would not be in so much debt. And If the bussinesses would quit leaving and going to mexico cuz it cheeper on them then we would have more jobs. als i agree that the illegals should have to pay if they come here NO TAX BREAKS FOR THEM. They don't let the rest of us off just cuz we can't make it. SEND THEM OUT!

Thanks for this great post.

2009-03-14T02:34:00.000-04:00

Thanks for this great post.

funny thing this country was in a mess before obam...

2009-03-11T16:26:00.000-04:00

funny thing this country was in a mess before obama even decided to run for office. Like the old saying Rome wasn't built in a day you have to give it time. Good Lord the man has not even been in office six months. Also if people would quit spending all their hard earn money on stupid crap that they really don't need then they would be better off. I am married and have no children but wish I did. Always remember quit complaining your life could be worse. Be Happy with what you got. You make your life what it is.

im 65 i get 256 dollars a month and pay 96 of that...

2009-03-06T22:01:00.000-05:00

im 65 i get 256 dollars a month and pay 96 of that for mdicare i dont get food stamps,leap or any help they go by my new husbands income he wasnt with me the 40 years i work so why does ss go by and leap,etc,go by his income he makes not even enough to keep us a going i thought when u took early retirement you are suppose to enjoy the rest of your life!ha!! thanks! obama for nothing but then i didnt vote for you either!thank god!!

I see that the economy is headed down the wrong ro...

2009-03-04T13:22:00.000-05:00

I see that the economy is headed down the wrong road. I am commenting towards the mother of two that wants $270,000. Yes this would stimulate the economy, but imagine the debt it would put us in. We need to think about the long term effects. The government needs to come up with a different approach to solving this crisis. I'm not saying that the stimulus won't work, but what i am saying is that someone needs to come up with a different idea towards things.

It certainly takes a long time for the stimulus to...

2009-02-14T18:53:00.000-05:00

It certainly takes a long time for the stimulus to get "passed" by all levels of government. This is probably a good thing, since it's so serious a bill.

It does make me wonder whether certain politicians are purposefully trying to "stall" the process in hopes that things might improve in the meantime, or in hopes that it will fall on its face.

I tend to lean a bit on the side of "No Stimulus, Please!", but I do admit that that is not politically viable (unfortunately) even if it is the right move.

I think a stimulus package is just a temporary fix...

2009-02-10T18:30:00.000-05:00

I think a stimulus package is just a temporary fix. stop trying to bail out big business by throwing money around. its fool hardy to think that people would actually just run out and spend 500 or 1000 on a whim, without taking into consideration their own economic issues. people are already screwed over by this economy-----loss of jobs,health insurance, foreclosures and who knows what else, and this is the govts big solution, people don't understand. they see dollar signs and lose their minds. its the govt trying to pass the buck on the consumers, to fix a problem that the big the govt should have corrected along time ago.......people keep saying the stimulus is coming out of taxes the govt collected, then why haven't they fixed the goddamn deficit? they can throw money around, to say they are doing something. but really what the hell are they doing? what happens when all the money is spent and the economy is back to where it was before we spent it? its a freaking cycle and it isn't gonna stop. what needs to happen is they need to rethink this whole damn monetary system, the dollar is so damn inflated it isn't worth the shit anymore, our monetary system is built on greed and corruption, keep the rich rich and the poor poor, until the banking industry changes, and we loose the freaking federal Reserve Board......we will keep spiraling.
our country is on the verge of economic collapse. and a few hundreds or thousands of dollars isn't gonna change anything in the long run.

my opinion.....take it or leave it

well what is the person saying on dec 10 cause if ...

2009-02-09T18:58:00.000-05:00

well what is the person saying on dec 10 cause if each person got 90,000 each the prices for everything would go up so thats assanine and please do us a favor and learn some math 600 for you and 300 for each kid would equal 1200 whoever wrote that is obviously not smart since they stated that im 14 years old nad i have a better outlook on an economic stimulus package each person should recieve the same amount due to the fact that every person is equal you could be homeless and you should receive the same amount ad everyone else in the world no one is any better than the other

I feel the stimulus package would help greatly esp...

2009-02-05T18:15:00.000-05:00

I feel the stimulus package would help greatly especially for low to mid income families who live pay check to pay check, i mean 500-1000 thats a drop in the bucket most people with kids spend like 300 on groceries alone and rent is sky high everywhere, but our nation needs the help the families need the help we all need the help,of course the panelists will say NO to one because they have enough money to pay for a village and work for the government but for those of us who don't it needs to be strongly considered as soon as possible

I agree with the anonymous comment on tax payments...

2009-02-04T13:14:00.000-05:00

I agree with the anonymous comment on tax payments to children being unfair. As to the immediate response after it calling his opinion ignorant, what? I don't think the author understands what ignorant means. It means someone is not stupid or dumb but lacking knoledge. Which doesn't make sense in the face of the initial author explaining their opinion. They even say its my opinion and i'm sorry if it offends. So in the end its their opinion and simply by not being inline with your beliefs doesn't make theirs " blantently ignorant." Also the responder reminds them that without children their is no future, no kidding. However by the nature and tone she sounds like she is saying that without free money and additional tax breaks the population would cease. Maybe if additional tax breaks and free money weren't given more care would be taken with regard to pregnancy. While in some cases the extra money is temporary and helpful. In many cases it gives a safety net that causes many to not be as careful or worried about pregnancy. Since if they do become pregnant the goverment will pad their income if it is insufficent to provide. This is not including more prefferential treatment in regard to assistance of utilities, vs a single person in the same income situation.

I just want to say to anonymous left on January 22...

2009-01-29T15:07:00.000-05:00

I just want to say to anonymous left on January 22nd..... The first part of your message was very good and well spoken but as for the second part, I am a single mother and I have a very good job as an insurance agent, I went to college I have never been on any form of welfare or food stamps. Some of your points I do agree with, I do not believe it is fair for someone to get more money because they carelessly have 4 kids, the stimulus goes to taxpayers, you do have to pay less in taxes and you get more back for having a child but you are raising a child and without children there would be no reason to fix the economy because there would be no future. Not to be rude and I am going to say this in the best way possible but if your parents didn't choose to have you then you would not be around to make blatantly ignorant comments on Internet blogs.

I agree with a stimulus package being put into pla...

2009-01-22T10:57:00.000-05:00

I agree with a stimulus package being put into place to help the little people out of this recession however I feel like nothing is going to change unless we get to what the root of the problem and the main issue that i can see is all these immigrants who float over here on their rafts or jump the borders and we do nothing about it. I can understand the want to come to the US mexico or cuba but i do feel that if you want to come here then there needs to be laws and strict ones that require you to apply for citizenship and pay taxes just like the rest of us americans!! if they dont want to do that then get out of our country. I am tired of paying for them and their welfare and whatever else government funded that my tax dollars go to. what is the issue with having these people deported to their own countries. why is it not the responisiblity of these employers who will employ these aliens and do no backround check or residency check and they give them jobs and pay them under the table becuse they can get away with doing it and these people will work for next to nothing. i think that there needs to be penalities for these employers who willingly employ illegal aliens. mayb if there were some consequences for the employers this would reduce the number of illegals that have jobs here in america. I dont care if your life sucks where you are from now you have come here to my country and have now in turned caused me to have to struggle and suck off of our ecomomy.

The next thing i want to point out is how very unfair it is for these people whom have children and they get in some cased almost twice as much than myself as a single person. it doesnt take someone special to make a baby and i my self could certainly do so however its not something that i feel to be a finacially sound decision and i wish more people out there would see it that way before the decide that having a child is a good idea. i understand that things are far more expensive when you have a child but that was a choice to have a baby just like its my choice to not but the only person that gets a reward for their choice is the person who chose to HAVE a child. so why do they get more back then myself i dont think that children should even be a factor. there are so many single moms out there that are struggling due to poor decisions and they go onto welfare and this that and other thing and who ultimately pays for me!! all because she made the choice to have a baby and couldnt take care of it and not only do i pay for the welfare i dont get nearly as much back in my taxes or in a stimulus check. if the gov stopped glorifing having a baby and start reconizing the people who dont maybe the population would stop growing so rapidly and in turn we would be able to keep up with the amount of jobs needed.

Sorry to offend anyone but its my opinion.

Congrats to Obama, the 44th President of USA. We ...

2009-01-20T22:14:00.000-05:00

Congrats to Obama, the 44th President of USA. We all waiting for his real next movement to save USA from this recession. And I think his stimulus package promise could be help of this situation.

Goonie

i feel that if the government is going to take the...

2009-01-16T14:13:00.000-05:00

i feel that if the government is going to take the time and effort to put together a package it first needs to begin with shipping all of the immigrants back to where they came from, make them apply for citizen ship and pay taxes just like the rest of us, if you owe the government money they will throw you in jail especially if youre a low income citizen whos tried everything to pay your debt but cant however they let foreigners in this country and allow them to take our jobs and not pay taxes... excuse me but BullS**t. no offence to anyone but when i look around and see a housefull of non english speaking mexicans who load into a brand new truck every single day wearing $70 dollar jeans and what not i get pissed. Anyway, the stimulus package would be better off served drilling our own oil wells lower the gas back down to about $1.00 so people can afford to purchase vehicles and DRIVE them, lower the car so we can afford to get to work gas prices drop so will food, merchandise, and then smaller companies like heating and ac places could afford to pay more because they arent spending triple digits plus getting their service vans and trucks out to people. Stop pumping money into the econimies of foreign countries like irac and afghanastan and pump into into ours. end the war then the government wouldnt have to pay $800,000 out in insurance payments to those who get killed. seriously im an ex navy wife and this whole war thing is just played out, its killing the economy. anyway just my thoughts

I hear all this talk about a stimulus package for ...

2009-01-09T11:02:00.000-05:00

I hear all this talk about a stimulus package for the little guy. I wonder though could the amount of money in a stimulus package, given to the everyday person, ever really be enough.

Is $500 to $1000 dollars really enough to make a difference in anyone's life. That does not even cover one months rent in most places.

I think the money is better spent on infrastructure, energy projects, and retooling the auto industry. At least spending the money this way keeps it from going over sees to pay for cheap consumer projects. Moreover, spending the money on the country would create more jobs. And more good paying jobs is really what we need

i would like to see a stimulus package for taxpaye...

2008-12-16T17:15:00.000-05:00

i would like to see a stimulus package for taxpayers. the very people who are being tapped to carry the load of the bailouts for the 'big boys,' who then sit on 'their' money. give the money to taxpayers shared up to the 700 or whatever billion $$. taxpayers will pay their mortgages, buy cars and goods, then the banks will have money, the auto makers, retailers and chinese factories, too. c'mon people it's not that hard to figure out. go to www.BSFlag.com and email a BS Flag to your congressman today! (or congresswoman).

I'm not a really smart person. But I do know one t...

2008-12-10T16:58:00.000-05:00

I'm not a really smart person. But I do know one thing. This stimulus package is suppose to help. Well here is my thought.
I'm a single mother still have 2 kids at home. Lucky enough to be buying a house. Single income. Around 23,000 a year. Now if we get a rebate for 600 for me and another 300 for each child. That is a total of $900. Well they want everyone to run out and spend this to jump start everything. I would use it to catch up on my utilites, pay some past due bills. Maybe fill my gas take full. Maybe even lucky to have enough left to buy some gerceries. I live from pay check to pay check,like alot of other people. Who could go out and just spend or save some of that money,there won't be enough to go and just spend to jump start anything. And there are alot of people worst off then I am. Why not give out to the big corps a bail out just enough funding for around 6 months of funding. tax imports up so high that the companies in the USA will have to bring back the companies to America and bring back the jobs that were lost when they moved them overseas. There are so many illegals that work where I do. It is about 90% illegals to 10% of white people. And people wonder where the jobs are going to. Well anyway. Give each consumer 90,000 or so. So for me and my two kids my rebate would be 270,000 what would I do with that, Pay my off my house. Which in turn the banks woud benifit. Build a gargae that would creat jobs. Would look into buying a hybread car. which in turn would help the auto industry. Then I could go out and buy some furniture and other things for my house and kids. Which would help merchants. I see a win win here. Getting a small rebate will not really do anything. Just my thoughts.

Looks, like that stimulus payment is coming sooner...

2008-11-24T11:00:00.000-05:00

Looks, like that stimulus payment is coming sooner, rather than later and the reader poll was spot on.

Update (November 24th 2008) from the WSJ:

Obama Eyes $500 Billion in Stimulus

Aides to President-elect Barack Obama and President George W. Bush are rushing to craft measures to shore up financial markets and prevent a policy vacuum from further harming the economy during the transition of power between the two men.

Mr. Bush said Monday there could be more decisions like the government's rescue of Citigroup if other institutions need help. Mr. Bush also said he consulted with Mr. Obama on the rescue. "There is close cooperation" between his administration and the Obama camp, he said.

Mr. Obama's team is putting together a new economic stimulus plan containing more than $500 billion in federal spending and tax cuts over the next two years, Obama aides and advisers said. That package would be far more aggressive than anything envisioned during the campaign. Democratic leaders in Congress are preparing to rush passage shortly after New Year's to have a stimulus-plan bill ready for Mr. Obama to sign once he is inaugurated Jan. 20.

Thanks for the comments. Looks like folks are expe...

2008-11-12T16:39:00.000-05:00

Thanks for the comments. Looks like folks are expecting Dec/Jan to tbe the timeframe for the next stimulus (75% of votes). However with the auto industry bailout in the works, the stimulus may longer to materalize. Frugal shopping this holiday season is key.

Bruce - Appreciate the kind words.

Great article. You are still a roll model for my b...

2008-11-08T08:20:00.000-05:00

Great article. You are still a roll model for my blogging.

Thanks

Obama backs the stimulus package per his remarks i...

2008-11-07T19:23:00.000-05:00

Obama backs the stimulus package per his remarks in today's speech.

“I want to see a stimulus package sooner rather than later. If it does not get done in a lame-duck session, it will be the first thing I do as president of the United States,” said Obama during a press conference held at Chicago’s Hilton Hotel.

So looks like the package will now be approved at the latest in Jan, but it could take till Feb/Mar to have it paid out.