In several places I have seen a quote that the stimulus package, which President Obama is pushing, amounts to $3,000 per person. When I heard this, my first thought was, “I’ll pay my $3,000”. I’ll even pay my son’s $3,000. Is that all it would take to turn the country around? Where do I send my money? If we all sent in a check for $3,000 what would happen? We might begin to take a closer interest in how that money was spent. After all, it really would seem like “our” money.
As taxpayers, all the money the government spends is our money but that can seem a little abstract. Those big numbers they throw around, a billion, a trillion, they don’t even seem real. Lately I’ve been seeing a formula illustrating how many years it would take, at a million dollars a day, to pay the bill for the stimulus package. A million is a figure most of us can get our minds around so we’re all shocked. The reality is that the government spends (and receives) much more than a million dollars a day already so that million dollar a day statistic is only relevant for shock value. It’s designed to wake us up.
If a family member calls us for help and we gift them a few hundred or a few thousand dollars, suddenly we become vested in how they spend every penny. All of a sudden it’s our business if they show up in a new car or call to recount their day at the mall. We’re outraged. All of a sudden we feel as though we should get a vote on how they spend their money. We think about it; we agonize over it; we get mad at their poor choices. They, on the other hand, get mad at us. They resent our interference. They want us to butt out. They are convinced we don’t understand. They want our money with no accountability.
This is the relationship we have with our government. It is also the relationship that the government, on our behalf, has with the companies that are receiving the bailout money. If our money is spent bailing out Bank of America, who then turns around and spends $10 million on Super Bowl parties, calling it part of their “strategy of growth”, we should be outraged. When AIG spends $440,000 on a week-long executive retreat or $86,000 on an English hunting trip, saying they were planned before the bailout, we should be livid. Wells-Fargo recently cancelled a lavish 12-night corporate getaway at the Wynn Las Vegas after a storm of criticism. No doubt they are resentful and think we just don’t understand. Today President Obama announced a restriction of $500,000 a year for top executive salaries at bailed out companies. Although I suspect there are lots of loopholes, it’s a start. He’s restricting his own top people’s salaries to $100,000 a year.
The government itself wastes money on a monumental scale every single day. If you’ve never worked for the government you may not know how they reward frugality. If a government entity doesn’t spend their budget in the course of a fiscal year, the following year their allotment is reduced. This process leads to a frenzy of needless spending at the end of the fiscal year. I spent many years as a contract worker in one of the branches of the Department of Justice, which was later devoured by Homeland Security. (Probably the biggest misuse of funds ever, but that’s a different topic!) Every year “wish lists” were frantically composed, collected and fulfilled in an effort to spend leftover money before the year ran out.
I don’t usually give voice to political rants and I don’t intend to make a habit of it in future. I voted for President Obama and I’m basically for his stimulus bill. While I'm not advocating that we send in $3,000, I do think it’s important for each of us to figure out some way to personalize the amount of money being spent in our names and on our behalf by our government and by the companies who receive those monies. We only get to vote for our elected officials once every four years. We get to vote for or against these companies with our dollars every single day. I think I know which vote will have a greater effect.
Update: After a comment by Fabulously Broke and some e-mails from other readers, I edited my article to clear up any confusion that I might be suggesting people should send in $3000 to clear up the deficit. I think we all know, even if we did, it wouldn't solve the problem!
Posts
5 comments:
Am not in the States, but if giving $3k to clear the debt is all that it takes.. I'd gladly pay it.
But I am not sure many people HAVE $3k to pay for something like that. I mean a lot of Americans are in debt and have lost jobs - $3k is all that stands between having food or not
Fabulously Broke in the City
"Just a girl trying to find a balance between being a Shopaholic and a Saver."
@FB - you are exactly right & I certainly wasn't advocating that as a solution. In fact, no one is asking us to do that. I was just thinking if I did send in $3,000 all of sudden it would be MY money and I'd be a lot more tuned in to where the money was going. That would be a good thing. That line of thinking personalized the whole issue for me, which I think is important.
Good essay! You've made so many good points here, it's hard to count them!
It's encouraging to see Obama (ostensibly) limiting pay for his top people. But as you point out, the way use-it-or-lose-it money works tends to force government agencies to get busy spending as the fiscal year comes to a close.
I don't know how much of that is unnecessary, though. At our office we're encouraged to accelerate purchases that we would make anyway: office supplies, any computer software or equipment we will need in the near future, replacement of decrepit furniture, and the like. It's not really a shopping frenzy.
Great post. I would like to add that with any stimulus package it would sit much better with the public if all the extra BS wasn't added on somewhere near page 140 something. Do the bailout but stop with the extra how many millions for birth control, etc. Maybe it is just me but I just don't see the connection.
"True that 3,000 x 300 million does equal 900 billion, however it does not illustrate what it will cost taxpayers. #1 - it's 900 billion in new debt, which means there is interest owed and will actually add 1.4 trillion to the existing debt. (this is seperate from the 700 million + interest TARP money already authorized)#2 that debt must be paid by federal income tax, 300 million is our population, not our number of taxpayers. Additionally, of the number of working americans only roughly half of them actually pay income tax. Works out to a lot less than 300 million paying off that debt, and a lot more than 3,000 per person. Using current projections, estimates are this added debt will take 40 years to pay off."
Post a Comment