A  breakdown of the stmulus bill seems to show that most of the money is going to go to the people whoare willing to spend whatever money they have on new stuff; energy efficient appliances, insulation, windows, green energy, new cars,e tc.  Other money is going to long term projects like infrastructure, or education.  I was especially surprised to see 36 billion dollars appropriated to the much-maligned "No child left behind" program."

More funds are going to bigger breaks for more children and college educations.  I think that perhaps these items aimed at improving the structure of our future workforce might be worthwhile.

HOWEVER the average tax break for us is about $13 a paycheck.  I just don't freakin get it.  If any of you are smarter than me and can explain this, please do.  The average american gets $13 less jacked out of our paychecks, and we're encouraged to buy thousands of dollars worth of washers, dryers, windows, solar panels, and cars at basically 30% off? WTF? 

Like most of these problems weren't caused by Americans buying too much with credit in the first damned place, now our financially irresponsible government is incentivising us to be more financially irresponsible?  Jesus friggin Christ!! How about a tax break to improve our credit score?  What about a tax credit for financial counseling?  How about a reality check?  One of the huge issues in the election was the financial irresponsibility of the Iraq war and pretty muc h ALL of the government spending done in the last 8 years, and here we have a plan to TRIPLE last year's deficit before the first 2 months of this administration is up.

Here's my stimulus plan.  First, the government will hire and train debt-reduction counselor specialits.  The reason they will be specialists is because they can be trained faster by not having to know the rest of financial business.  They will also hire and train seperate financial HEALTH specialists simultaneously.  Americans will get a tax break for the cost of counseling or part of it, and a bonus on their tax returns for every line item in the counselor's repot they can document as completed on their next tax return.  After completing the debt reduction specialists recommendations, they move on to the other guys.  Yes, the people currently with less debt will move on faster. No, they won't get as many breaks becasue a) they don't need them as much and b) they'll be further ahead financially in the plan and making their own money so they'll need them even less later.

I think that tax breaks are FANTASTIC ways of stimulating new technology, like electric cars.  With any new technology, the most difficult hurdle in getting products to market is the initial release price.  The price of the Prius, for example has dropped TREMENDOUSLY versus the inital price because the system for building them has gotten more efficient and the equipment to build them has been partially paid by exisiting sales, nevermind the most important part, that also they have proven a market for the fuel efficient car.

However, I'm not sure that offering a tax credit for items likely to bought with REVOLVING credit lines are a fantastic way to do anything other than encourage more people to make bad decisions and create another crisis involving different companies.  Now I'm just really pissed off.