Real Stimulus

I suspect that this idea from Congressman Louie Gohmert (R-TX) would have broad support among the Republican Assembly members and sympathizers with whom I'm spending time this evening:

Where the Pelosi-Paulson plan takes the taxpayers' money and puts it under the government's thumb so that predatory politicians and micromanaging bureaucrats have more and more control over the American economy, Congressman Gohmert's plan puts the money back into the pockets of the American people and allows them to choose. ...

For the $350 billion second bailout installment Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is going to request, every American taxpayer could have a two-month tax holiday from both income tax and the Social Security-Medicare (FICA) tax.

That means that for all of January and all of February you would pay no federal income tax and no FICA tax, which—for most Americans—amounts to about 33 percent of your gross income.

Furthermore, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has proposed an additional $700 billion as a stimulus package.

That would pay for an additional four months of a tax holiday.

Thus, if you combined the Pelosi and Paulson proposals, you could create a tax holiday through June.

That would mean no working American would pay a penny in income tax or a penny in FICA tax for the first six months of the year.

And that would mean no business would pay a penny in matching FICA tax for the first six months of the year.

As a pro-small business, pro-jobs creation, pro-market stimulation measure, imagine the power of that much extra money in the hands of the American workers and the American entrepreneur.

If the unalloyed objective of the political class were to effect economic recovery and set the nation on a course of greater opportunity, it would be talking more about such approaches. Cynic though it may mark me, I can't help but infer the strategy of using difficult times to advance ulterior goals — such as expanding and centralizing government influence. Sure it'll extend and deepen the hardships of average Americans, but the powers will make it up to us one day, when they've got this whole economy problem licked.