"Senate Makes Fixes to Stimulus Bill"

"But Not Everyone is Happy"!
Some of the information I am using here is found in an article at: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,326928,00.html

Ok, why wouldn't a fix make everyone happy? Well I remember and you may too, a 20/20 program sometime back about how many illegal immigrants were actually paying taxes. How they were using ITINs that banks were giving them when they opened accounts! ITINs are Individual Tax Identification Numbers! Then when they filed tax papers for refunds they used these ITIN's to do so! Now most of these people work here and send or more precisely, wire the money back to their home land to their families to live on. Bank of America was getting hit hard on this because they were also issuing credit cards to people with accounts and only ITINs!

Well a Senator realized that the house bill was going to reward these illegal immigrants also, and that money would probably go back to their family in another country and stimulate the wrong country's economy! So in the Senate's version those that file income tax papers using ITINs numbers wouldn't get the refund, only those with valid SSA numbers would! A good fix as I see it!

The original senate version didn't have any caps, which I agreed need to have! So now the senate version caps it at $150,000 in 2007 for singles with a $500.00 rebate; $1,000 if married and filing jointly with a combined income less than $300,000. Families with children under 17 years old would get $300 per child. that is better than the house bill, it includes everyone with an income, even those with only $1.00 income and up. Not like the house bill that leaves those with less than $3,000.00 income out of it!

So this will cause the senate and house to have to enter a hearing to see if they can work out some agreement to send to the president! But that isn't all that they changed from the house version of the bill! They included an unemployment extension! Some argue that if people have an unemployment extension, it would give them an incentive to stay unemployed! Give me a break! No one wants to be unemployed! Sure it is nice to be able to pay your bills while you are unemployed, and be able to not end up homeless! Some argue they wouldn't look for work, as they would without unemployment.

"The committee extends unemployment payments for 13 weeks for those whose benefits have run out, with 26 more weeks available in states with a 6.5 percent unemployment rate. Only four states qualify for this extra assistance: Alaska, Michigan, Mississippi and South Carolina."

What is the real problem here? Bush's legacy! He doesn't want unemployment to appear to rise on the end of his watch! And it would! Because unemployment figures come from those applying for unemployment! If their unemployment ended, they are not getting any more and are not eligible, the numbers drop! That doesn't really mean unemployment went down, it means that those eligible went down.

The numbers of unemployment stats will go up if people who are unemployed become eligible for benefits! Because they will get a notice and reapply for it! A lot more states may jump up to 6.5 area if there are more benefits to be had!

Ok what else could there be? Oh remember I said in my earlier blog on this subject that the poor and seniors and disabled should get help too! Well under the senate package they will! Those that make under $3,000.00 a year would get the same rebate married and single!

"The Senate Finance Committee bill also gives rebate checks to more than 20 million low-income seniors who live on Social Security benefits. The disabled are also included in this, as they, too, get Social Security benefits. Baucus said 75,000 disabled veterans would get checks, as a result."

Great fix, the size of rebate down from $600.00 to $500.00 and $1,200.00 to $1000.00 and preventing money from rebates from ending up in foreign economy's will more than pay for the money going to those not included under the house bill! The economic stimulus will also pay back in more taxes collected by the government if the president is right and so how can that hurt? It can't!

So I say to the senate, stick to your guns, and house members get some back bone and fight for this senate bill if you are going to fight for a bill! You can over ride a veto if there is one!

There are enough republicans out there going to have to be reelected to over ride this veto if it is vetoed! If the republicans don't vote to over ride the veto, you have a very good campaign to unseat them and replace them with a democrat that would! And if there are democrats that vote against this bill, them we need to look at replacing them as well! Stop crying about what the president may do and do your job's!