Is the $1.9 trillion stimulus package a good thing?

This week's Pro vs. Con takes on the $1.9 trillion stimulus package that was approved by the Senate early Sunday. Is it a good thing? Michael Bertsch takes on the “pro” position while Anthony Watts is “con.”

Pro: Michael Bertsch

Even though Rep. LaMalfa has voted against it, we should support this new stimulus bill, and I’ll tell you why. This bill juices the economy like the last one did, but with a better scope. This one will and should focus on lower income folks and smaller small businesses. We have reasons for this. Those with enough funds would bank it. People and small businesses with few funds would spend it. If we want the money actually to stimulate the economy, we should give it to people who’ll spend it.

Last year when we got our stimulus we went out and bought a new tea kettle at the downtown hardware store and a new high end bike pump from a downtown bicycle shop. We love downtown. You can get almost anything there but a parking ticket: parking tickets signal herds of shoppers. (We need herds.) We tipped our pizza drivers well. Tried two new local brews. We filled up depleted materials for our hobbies. We stimulated the local economy.

But this new stimulus is more about families than about “buying.” Families need childcare, and you can’t go to work if you don’t have childcare. We can see how stressful that is. When businesses have money, stores open up and offer jobs. When families have childcare, parents can work those jobs.

So, is it free money? Nope. We’ll go more into debt to rescue our people during this recession, and we need to address that debt. We could levy a tax on all stock transactions. Additionally, everyone would benefit by returning tax rates to 1967 (when I first started paying taxes). That’s because slapping a

70% tax on top salaries forces a choice: give it to the government or fold it into the business through better wages and benefits, safer working conditions, and creating a more secure supply and distribution chain. Winning.

Unfortunately, that money might stimulate inflation.

The Federal Reserve would address inflation by raising interest rates —historically low, there’s lots of room there, so now’s a good time to re-finance your home or business before the rate hikes.

Wisdom would juice the economy. Greed would stash the money offshore. So the better move invests in our workers who would spend more money in our small businesses and on our products. We should support the new bill because of families, businesses, and our first responders, teachers, and retail people.

Con: Anthony Watts

First let me clarify that I know there are many people out of work, some who are just a few dollars away from a crisis, and many businesses suffering and near closing up shop. For these people and businesses, the stimulus package is a good thing.

The recently passed $1.9 trillion-dollar stimulus bill included $1,400 stimulus checks for many Americans, $350 billion in aid to state and local governments and an extension of federal unemployment benefits.

But the real help stops there.

The issue here is that there’s billions of other dollars not going towards helping American citizens or businesses. To put it bluntly — the stimulus is full of fouled pork and other things that won’t help the average American family or business. Only 9% of the package is going to actual COVID relief for taxpayers — the rest is going to a variety of government projects and overseas aid.

The math: There are just 125 million taxpayers in the USA. Simple division says the $1.9 trillion Covid relief bill will cost each American taxpayer about $15,000, but you only get $1,400 of that. Essentially, we are creating a huge future debt that will eventually have to be paid, probably by higher taxes in the future.

Meanwhile, the US. Debt Clock https://www.usdebtclock.org/ soared past $28 trillion in debt. The math there for taxpayer debt is even uglier. Each US taxpayer is on the hook for $223,893 according to the debt clock.

This isn’t even a case of “Robbing Peter to Pay Paul”, it is far worse — we are bankrupting ourselves, and the future of our children and grandchildren. Although the attribution is in question, this message is germane. Two centuries ago, a Scotsman named Alexander Tytler made this observation: “A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury.”

And literally that is what is going on in Washington. The Democrats in power act as if they’ve never taken a basic course in economics.

In 1787, Ben Franklin was asked “…have we got a republic or a monarchy?” He replied: “A republic, if you can keep it.”

I fear now what we have is a Democracy, if we can afford it.