How stupid do politicians believe we are?! So where is the money for this simulus coming? Are the bozos going to cut some of their earmorks they use to retain their power? Fat chance!!

No, they'll just tack it onto the trillions of dollars of national debt which ultimately hurts our long term fiscal viability.

But what do they care?! They can take "credit" for making courageous decisions and saving the U.S. economy...

What a bunch of loosers!

Congress taking retreats, the President ready to give away stimulus moneys to taxpayers....seems like a really good time to be a politician, making everybody happy!

While our first poster's principals are in the right place, his statements are not necessarily accurate. A short term aid package which can prevent or shorten a recession and can potentially stimulate the economy in a manor which raises the taxable GDP. So in the long term the taxable gains outweigh the cost of the stimulus.

Now if the stimulus works and the economy is back on solid footing, will congress cut spending and put forth a balanced budget to get the US back on solid financial footing which will help prevent our some of our current financial worries? Not likely. They haven't learned from their mistakes in the past, and they probably won't start now.

Mr. Pershing's article on the "stimulus" is crammed with political maneuverings of our self-serving congressmen, but nary a hint of any substance about what is actually being considered.

I don't there should be any "stimulus package" until we have a new President. Bush is anxious, as always, to handle billions of dollars so he can say he "misplaced" it AGAIN. Bush has been robbing the United States for years now. I say we wait for a new President before handling any more billions of dollars that will get misused, lost, and spent in Iraq.

In answer to the first poster, they think we are pretty stupid. $800 tax rebate, GIVE ME A BREAK!! That's about 1 month rental on some slumloard apartment.

Where is the LEADERSHIP? Why is no-one talking about how to stimulate the job market in the United States. Yeah, the unemployment figures don't look that bad but you have to ask yourself, "How bad are the data being collected?" It's time to take steps similar to those taken by FDR. Create programs that rebuild our crumbling infrastructure (there's a hell of a lot of work to be done there). Create programs that result in large scale energy generation systems that do not depend on fossil fuels (Spain is building massive solar plants). Create programs that will make drinkable water from the ocean (needds lots of power but build them near the solar plants).

How do we pay for it? Leave Iraq and INVEST that $1.8 billion dollas a week into something besides munitions and mercinaries.

Reid needs a month. Give me a break.
Cancel/postpone all retreats. If Congress cannot conduct the peoples' business on this issue within the next 2-3 days, then trash them all. Start anew and get rid of all of the old trash, both sides of the aisle.
Talent is available, they only need use it.

I wonder if all the money that is being squandered on Iraq was instead used to help improve our country's infrastructure (interstate highways, bridges and railroad)and thereby creating thousands of well-paying jobs, perhaps we wouldn't be in this economic quagmire. Man, I'll be glad when the Republicans are out of the White House.

Yeah! lets go on a retreat while people is looking hard for employment...10 months now for me and counting...

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Ben, thanks for detailing the schedule of "retreats" for the two parties. I guess the plan is to out-do Nero - the two parties will just party-on while the economy burns.

Probably just as well. The Dems are trying to turn the rebates into another welfare giveaway to the perpetually poor, in the hope of getting more votes in November. And I doubt whether $100+ Billion in giveaways - the amount DickNBUsh waste on the phony war on terror annually - will stop, or even slow down, the recession.

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I agree that there ought to be a stimulus for the economy. The trouble is since we don't know how much negativity (due to the sub-prime crisis and drop in real estate values) how can we know how much stimulus to provide. Without this information, the politicians are just guessing and grandstanding.

All I know is that I hope I get a check for $1,600. If we left Iraq it could probably be $16,000 but what's the difference?

Forget about your debt and the fact you make poverty wages. Just go and buy a new HD TV and do your part to keep the rich getting richer. Here! We'll even kick in a few hundred bucks toward it. United States. Gotta love the blindness.

Our perennial inept media should ask the politicians , were in the world they will get the money to stimulate the economy. The last time I checked the government does not have money, they owe money. Have you guys ever heard that there is a deficit and a big one. When this farce is going to be uncovered

This stimulus package is incredibly stupid, so the Repukes and Demowimps will rubber stamp it right away.

I can hardly wait to get my Chimpy Check.

I can buy a lot of beer and weed for $800 and forget about how Chimpy and the Repukes have wrecked this country...at least for awhile.

Sheer stupidity, giving money to people who don't really need it, or who don't necessarily want it, and then giving money to the others who have no concept of managing money, who are just as likely to, gamble with the money, buy drugs, or just buy something they really don't need, and something tha they really can't afford.

Whatever happened to the old concept of working for the money. Then we would know that the money got into the hands of those people who really need it, and those people who will manage it properly.

There's still something about, appreciating money more, when you have to work for it.

Come on folks, let's be positive. I will gladly take my money - and donate some of it to help ensure a Democratic victory in November. I'll even kick in a few bucks for a bus ticket to get Bush and Cheney out of town. Permanently. Out of the country or in jail would be even better. Permanently. If that isn't an economic stimulus, what is?

Neoliberal economic policies are the cause of impoverishing the US economy. The Congress and the President need to embark on a policy of regulation of the markets and foreign trade. The balance of trade deficit with China needs to be eliminated by tariffs and enforcement of antidumping laws. And, finally, I am really sick and tired of not being able to buy a can of chili because the producer won't put country of origin on it.

Silly to compare the Fed's timing with Congress's. The fed has only one tool and only five members. They can raise and lower the prime rate rate in a short time. Congress has to consider a broad range of possibilities, and then they have 435 members and a presidential veto to deal with.

So both political parties are hosting a retreat for their members while this country is crashing and burning? Our soldiers are dying in Iraq in this illegal invasion and our Congress critters go a partying? Plus everything stops next Monday so our idiot criminal-in-chief can make some stupid speech that no one will care about or listen to? When will we the American people wake up and INSIST we bring home our troops from Iraq NOW and invest the $1.5 billion a week or month (whatever the number is this week) in our country's infrastructure and citizens? Congress should be at work to restore our Constitution, not politicking and partying and patting themselves on the back. They shouldn't get ONE DAY OFF until they revoke the Patriot Act and all the other lawless actions this misadministration has wrought on us over 7 long and miserable years.