What we need is spending NOW... especially projects that eventually will pay themselves back.
Well,then, since the money is going out the door anyway, and you say spending is needed "NOW" and, when we combine the bank bailout funds and the amount of this 'stimulus' package, we are talking 2 trillion dollars, and when we look at the 136 million tax returns filed in 2006, why not give every filer $14,705 to do with as s/he likes? Some will quickly spend all or part of it on consumer goods and services, others will use it to pay bills, others will use it to reduce their debt, others will put it directly into the bank, some will use it as a downpayment on a house, some will use it to buy a car, some will replace household items, some will use it to party hardy, etc. In other words, people using the money precisely for what they want, not money being spent by the government based on the various special interests they can satisfy, reward, or promote.
Of course, that will not happen for several reasons. The pols and those NGOs and 'activists' who are greedy to get their hands on that dough do not trust the individuals that make up The People. More importantly, it would be anathema to them to trun over or return that much power to the individuals who make up The People. Thirdly, it would deprive those whose inner fascist drives them to seek to socially engineer the rabble. But hey! What can ya say?;-)
Yours in musing,
Issodhos
