GOP might filibuster Big 3 Bailout
I have no sympathy for any of these companies wanting bailouts. We shouldn’t have started it, and I hope the GOP can end it somewhere. I know the background for why the government felt compelled to jump in at the beginning – after all, it was certainly partially responsible for the subprime mess. However, it’s time to quit. Otherwise, it will never end.
LOTS of people are losing their jobs and getting NO assistance for it. My husband’s very large telecommunications company, one of the backbones that helped build this country, just announced 12,000 layoffs on top of 4,600 already announced. And we found out he is one of those. No job at the end of the year — in a one-income household. Where is our bailout? How are we going to make it?
The Big 3 haven’t been able to manage their businesses for many years now. The economic crisis didn’t cause it — and a government bailout loan isn’t going to fix it. Congress needs to stop throwing our money away. In 2006, about 135 million individual tax returns were filed (some are single, some are married returns). The $700B original bailout will cost each of those filers $5185. The $200B Fannie / Freddie will cost $1481 each.
CNBC has been keeping track of all the money going out. The running tally? $7.36 trillion as of 11/28. That’s over $54,000 per individual tax return!! Do you know what the median AGI for returns in 2006? Just under $32,000 a year.
We’re never going to be able to pay this off. Some of this might be loans, but do we really expect it all to be paid back?
December 10th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
Can you even do elementary arithmetic? Does the bailout really cost $54000 per tax return? Doesn’t that suppose every tax return paid the same amount of tax? If the two of us build a fund in which you put $10 and I put in $1, would you say I paid 50 cents of every dollar spent from that fund?
Seems like you and your husband should have paid a lot more attention in elementary school.
December 10th, 2008 at 6:40 pm
I was making it simple — very simple. That number IS how much it costs per tax return (it’s called an average). I could have done a more extensive analysis that used AGI at different levels, but everyone needs to understand the magnitude of this bailout and not just think about it in terms of how much money he / she / they make.
Taking your approach, my family’s portion just went to $0 since that will be our new income.
Thanks for reading and commenting!
December 11th, 2008 at 10:27 am
Actually, no ma’am your family’s portion was not $0. Do you remember a certain economic stimulus cheque with your tax return this year? Thanks
December 11th, 2008 at 10:33 am
Yes, it is always sad and difficult when someone loses a job. I understand that very well; in fact I am finishing a PhD this year and looking for an academic job; the higher education market is so badly frozen that I might have to work at McDonalds to avoid starving. Even so, I believe that one must stand for truth above all niceties.