What will you do with another $8 a week? (proof that people are disliking Obama...)

[Deja Q]

http://blogs.moneycentral.msn.com/topstocks/archive/2009/02/27/what-will-you-do-with-another-8-a-week.aspx

I think they're all idiots because now, having been told, what a TAX CUT means to them, they whine and bitch and complain. Funny they kept drooling over Bush's cuts time and again... Did Bush's tax cuts give more than $8 per week to these people?

[Redbear]

1. If you click through to the actual economists ideas, they are pretty good

My favorite is tehe one explaining why tax cuts don't stimulate the economy.

[Abq_Sarah]

2. When banks are receiving billions

Yet our expenses are rising, it's hard not to feel a little bitter about 8 bucks a week that won't even cover cost of living increases.

[ReliantJ]

3. But I'll get 8 Mrs Fields Large Cookies

Thanks Obama!

[Abq_Sarah]

8. Is that what the going price is now?

It's been years since I had one of those.

[ReliantJ]

11. I think so or maybe its 99cents for a small slurpee

I take the blue ones. :)

[Motown_Johnny]

4. Hell, I don't spend much more than $8.00 a week on gasoline. (at these prices)

that is what I will do with it I guess.



Yes, it is true. My little Saturn SC2 gets between 28-31 MPG actual mileage the way I drive it, and my daily commute is about 16 miles round trip.

[Still Sensible]

5. Bush's first tax cuts were checks of $300 (single)

and $600 (couple) back in 2002. That worked out to $5.77 per person, per week, but you got the whole check at once. Then his 2008 tax cut was $600 and $1,200 respectively, which means it was $11.54 per person, per week, but again you got the check all at once if you qualified.

One great thing about Obama's tax break is that as long as you get a paycheck, you get the tax break. In Bush's method it was based on your prior year tax return--so if you didn't pay any taxes (even if you just didn't earn enough and got all your contributions back) you didn't get it... because the republicans don't want anyone that poor getting a break.

Of course the stimulus also expands unemployment benefits and the earned income credit--which by the way was originally a Reagan administration idea, but the GOP hates being reminded about it.

[Abq_Sarah]

12. I wonder how this will work out for the self employed

Will their estimated payments be reduced by $100 per quarter?

[Still Sensible]

13. That's a great question, I would expect that

to be the case because the rates corresponding to the tax relief is lowered commensurately. I don't know where to go to confirm that though.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

6. I thought it was $13 a week. I was planning on buying an extra cigar a week.

[Profprileasn]

16. I heard that too

[chollybocker]

7. Save it up and donate it to a 2010 Dem candidate.

(Who am I kidding? Them cookies sounded good.)

[ReliantJ]

9. Indeed. Democracy through cookies

:toast:

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. that extra eight a week will be handy

that is half a tank of gas

That is another serving of fruit and vegies

That is another gallon of milk (with spare change)

That is the ability to go out and have some fun... which translates in all cases to more jobs

People have zero knowledge of economics... or how things really work

Oh and the cookies that all you make fun off, you get enough people doing that, well that Mrs. Fields stays open with employees

[BamaGirl]

14. That's 2 gallons of milk for us

And considering the amount of milk we go through a week, I'll welcome the extra bit of money.

[namahage]

15. $8 a week, instead of all at once, is NOT a bad thing.

I see a lot of snark about how many cookies and slurpees $8 a week will buy. Guess what--that money is being SPENT, not being saved in bank accounts or being used to pay down debt, which does nothing to stimulate the economy--and which is what happened with many of the lump-sum stimulus checks last year.

[doc03]

18. I am not disagreeing with you but Americans

want instant results. They are also extremly poor with math even though $13 a week adds up to more money, Americans will remember a check for $500 and but not $13 a week extra. A couple years from now most Americans will forget that tax-cut but the right won't let them forget the increase on the rich. They will actually be able to convince most people their taxes were also increased.

[bbinacan]

17. I was told that

it was not a tax cut but a reduction in the withholding which we will be liable for next year. Is this true?

[davidwparker]

19. Whatever extra I have -- including an extra $8 -- goes to paying off my

last credit card.

Dumb me. I used them to do home remodeling. With houses in the toilet now, I wished that I had that money back now.

[a la izquierda]

20. I'm getting $5. A. Month.

I make $1200/month, after taxes. I'm not whining or bitching, but I'd like to know exactly what the hell good this will do me. In a year, I can buy a week's worth of groceries if I saved it all.

[hfojvt]

21. I must admit to some confusion

According to Citizens for Tax Justice, 51% of taxpayers get less than $600 from the Bush tax cuts.
http://www.ctj.org/pdf/taxday2008.pdf

But I do not see how that can be right. I put the changed tax rates in my journal. Only 37.71% of households make less than $35,000, but even at $35,000 a couple saves $802.5 from the Bush tax cuts. That's if they have no children. Those who have children gain $400 per child as the child tax credit went from $600 to $1000. A single person at $35,000 only saves $401.25, but a single person at $45,000 saves $1176.25.

There are quite a few households in the $40,000 - 80,000 range who got much more than $400 from the Bush tax cuts, but the thing about the Bush tax cuts is that so much more money goes to households making over $150,000.