My One Point Stimulus Plan—Show The People The Money!

I have an economic stimulus plan every bit as large as the one grinding its way through Congress. I have based my approach on William F. Buckley’s notion that he would rather be governed by the first 1000 people in the Boston telephone directly than the faculty of Harvard. I would rather give ALL of the stimulus dollars to the American people, and let them spend it, than give it to the legions of government Rod Blagojevich’s at the Federal, State and local level.

Here’s my plan. Enlist the support of the credit card companies to manage a process where:

Every family with a credit card receives a credit of $4,000 (on one of the cards) every six months for a total of $12,000 per family over 18 months

Each payout is “use it or lose it”, with any of the $4,000 not spent in 6 months being returned to the Treasury

Any family not currently in possession of a credit gets sent one, but without a credit facility beyond the stimulus “check” amount

For simplicity, every family gets the three checks

Unmarried individuals get 50% of the married stimulus allowance

As no one is going to look a gift horse in the mouth, this plan guarantees that the economy with receive a cash injection of $300bn every 6 months for the next year and a half, based on the fact there are 75m families in America. Best of all, the $300bn will be spent on the things Americans need, rather than the things politicians want.

Simple, not perfect, but effective and best of all, it cuts out Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid!