Barack, are you listening? Here is my "stimulus' package which will require no oversight, or middleman at all. It will increase the federal tax revenue, specifically target the middle income people, and the money will go directly into the economy, which will mean less foreclosures, and lower middle class slippage into the poverty ranks.
It is simple. If you make less than $250,000.00 per year on your 2008 W-2, you will be allowed to take up to 25% of your 401K money without penalty. However, the cap will be $50,000.00, and you must pay 33% taxes immediately. Mortgage their retirement you say? Why the heck not! What good is having money for retirement, and no money for health care for their children or staying in their homes today?
Yes, Fidelity and the 401K investment companies will take a hit. And here is my advise for treating them, and the rest of the financial institutions that just got a piece of the first economic stimulus package, then refused to loan out the money and pump up the economy. Fuck them. Yes, you heard me, fuck them. We should have bought one of those bailout banks and nationalized it anyway. Let them see what real competition is like. When I think of how those corporations treated us with our offers to bail them out for their own stupidity...then they spend it on executive weekends (AIG), or on acquisitions, or other "non-stimulus" initiatives, it makes me want to vomit.
Let the small guys get a hold of one-forth of their money. They won't waste it. Yes, they might pay down debt, and good for them. A lot of them will buy a car, pay their mortgage down and re-finance into the bargain rates that are out there (I just saw a 30 yr. fixed for 4.5%). They might even go out to dinner, take in a movie, buy a new suit, or afford a domestic vacation.
Let them know they could use the cash to solar power their homes, or buy a hybrid and save some tax dollars (through government programs), and now you have a "win-win." But the car and solar power panels have to be domestically manufactured. Let's include energy rated windows for their homes...same deal. Energy rated appliances for their home....where do we sign? Want to buy a two year Rapid Transit pass in advance? Do it, and you will get a 25% discount, thanks for staying off the roads.
It seems to me that the executive and legislative branches of government needs some good old fashioned common sense innovation, some "idea men." What Washington truly needs is some blood coursing into its veins (new or old).
We have elected what seems to be a good man, a fresh face. But I have yet to hear any truly innovative ideas, or thoughts. I hope we do. There is nothing wrong with floating an idea out there and getting some feedback.
Maybe the fault is ours. We are so intolerant of our elected officials that one mistake may well be their last in our eyes. We need to adopt the pragmatic approach corporations do in their think tanks, that no idea is too stupid to be expressed (it has worked for twenty years for Joe Biden). Some of the best ideas have been germinated in the manure of stupidity (I just made that up, and I think it's friggin' brilliant).
Is it too much to ask that Washington does some brain storming on the weekends? Maybe so. What should be our best and brightest often looks like "God's waiting rooms" (Congress members).
And that is the world.....the "World According to Kimba."
Thanks, as always for reading (and putting up with me). Kimba
No comments:
Post a Comment