The Economy Sucks
Two years ago a consultant I work with told me we'd have a recession in 2009. He stated that this was a tend he had seen whenever a new president had taken office. Since I lived through the recession of 2001 this logic seemed very solid to me. That recession was caused by the tech bubble bursting and we still have not seen some of those stocks recover (looking in your direction Intel).
I think I started to feel the economic crunch around the end of 2007. That was when the piper called and we had to sell our second house. What happened was we decided to buy a new home before we sold our old home. At the time this seemed like a good idea because we believed our realtor and didn't see the market collapsing around us. In the end we sold our home for a $30 thousand lose. Thankfully we had a nice retirement fund and family that was willing to help us out. I suppose I could have defaulted on the loan but that didn't seem right to us.
Since then we have felt a pinch in the pocket but have been able to make ends meet. I got a better paying job and my wife started working part time (she stays home with the kids). Still recently things have gotten tighter again. After paying bills I've noticed less and less discretionary funds available for going out, buy games or other items. At first the high price of gas was the issue but now it's the high price of natural gas that is hurting. Unfortunately I also took on a lot of debt on the sale of our old house and absorbing the lost income from my wife staying home.
So recently there has been some talk about congress releasing the second half of the bailout funds. Clearly I do not think bailing out the banks has helped anyone. We are seeing more and more people being laid off and consumer confidence is still declining. The banks are still not lending more money to individuals but now seem to be stable so I think we should not give them the rest of the funds. I think what is needed is relief for the tax payers. What I think should happen is the temporary stop of collection Social Security tax.
Right now there is $350 billion left from the bailout to be spent to stimulate the economy. In 2007 the federal government collect $675 billion dollars in social security tax but paid out only $495.7 billion with $82.3 billion of the surplus coming from payroll tax. If the government redirected the remaining bailout funds towards the social security fund and stopped collecting from payrolls it would bring immediate relief to tax payers.
I know for me that is a nice bump in my check if I didn't have to pay social security tax. Currently that would be an extra $213 every two weeks for my family. If I had an extra $426 a month I would be able to go out more, buy items for the home and still have enough to set aside each month. If the social security tax was suspended for six moths I would have $2800 more in my pocket. That will be a much larger benefit to my family than last year's check from the government.
Source
www.heritage.org
I think I started to feel the economic crunch around the end of 2007. That was when the piper called and we had to sell our second house. What happened was we decided to buy a new home before we sold our old home. At the time this seemed like a good idea because we believed our realtor and didn't see the market collapsing around us. In the end we sold our home for a $30 thousand lose. Thankfully we had a nice retirement fund and family that was willing to help us out. I suppose I could have defaulted on the loan but that didn't seem right to us.
Since then we have felt a pinch in the pocket but have been able to make ends meet. I got a better paying job and my wife started working part time (she stays home with the kids). Still recently things have gotten tighter again. After paying bills I've noticed less and less discretionary funds available for going out, buy games or other items. At first the high price of gas was the issue but now it's the high price of natural gas that is hurting. Unfortunately I also took on a lot of debt on the sale of our old house and absorbing the lost income from my wife staying home.
So recently there has been some talk about congress releasing the second half of the bailout funds. Clearly I do not think bailing out the banks has helped anyone. We are seeing more and more people being laid off and consumer confidence is still declining. The banks are still not lending more money to individuals but now seem to be stable so I think we should not give them the rest of the funds. I think what is needed is relief for the tax payers. What I think should happen is the temporary stop of collection Social Security tax.
Right now there is $350 billion left from the bailout to be spent to stimulate the economy. In 2007 the federal government collect $675 billion dollars in social security tax but paid out only $495.7 billion with $82.3 billion of the surplus coming from payroll tax. If the government redirected the remaining bailout funds towards the social security fund and stopped collecting from payrolls it would bring immediate relief to tax payers.
I know for me that is a nice bump in my check if I didn't have to pay social security tax. Currently that would be an extra $213 every two weeks for my family. If I had an extra $426 a month I would be able to go out more, buy items for the home and still have enough to set aside each month. If the social security tax was suspended for six moths I would have $2800 more in my pocket. That will be a much larger benefit to my family than last year's check from the government.
Source
www.heritage.org
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