The conventional wisdom is that the last tax rebate did not work...

[kentuck]

What was it expected to do? To get us totally out of this mess? Or did it just help folks hang on for about six months longer than they would have? If it was the latter, it was a bargain indeed. What they paid in the cash rebates was small potatoes to what they plan on spending now. Sometimes the conventional wisdom may be wrong?

[JANdad]

1. I know I sure could use it right now...

eom

[Warpy]

2. It didn't equal a single month's debt payment for most people

when you figure in student loans, mortgage or rent, car payments, insurance payments, and credit card debt. Of course it didn't work. It wasn't supposed to work. It was merely supposed to discredit the idea of putting any more money into the hands of working people via jobs and wages.

What, you thought the GOP would ever want to do anything for working people without a huge catch?

Wow.

[kentuck]

3. Makes sense...

Thanks.

(on edit) I know a lot of people that it really helped a lot.

[Andy823]

12. I agree.

Jobs are what this country needs now, not another rebate check that will only help for a month, two at the most for those who really need a job! The republican know this, and that's why they are pushing for tax cuts, and not more jobs. They want Obama to fail, and preventing jobs is the best way they know how to accomplish that.

[Oregone]

4. Well, you are reframing its purpose

Was it meant to "help folks hang on" or stimulate the economy by injecting capital into the system? It was really to do the later.

Unfortunately, tax cuts and rebates aren't incredibly effective because they do not determine that the money be spent in a manner that produces a big increase in production/services. They trust the consumer, who spends them on savings, porn, debt, and Wal-Mart.

[blonndee]

5. That's because it wasn't nearly enough,

in my totally uneducated opinion. $600? Please. Even for a broke-ass like me, that's chump change, considering my bills and debt. It should have been ten times larger for poor, working class and middle class, IMO.

That's one thing that bothers me about this latest package, too. I'm afraid it's going to be way too little, way too late for many of us.

[hedgehog]

7. What we really need is a significant increase in wages starting with

the minimum wage. It'll cause a round of inflation, but wages have been trailing inflation for what, 20 years now? Besides, a bump of inflation will help bring all those debts back in line with something people can handle.

[kentuck]

8. I agree...and also...

About $2000 per person just to make up for a small percentage of the lost wages of the last few decades. Then they could do the "stimulus bill" separate from all that. Infrastruture and building and repairing roads and bridges could put a lot of people to work with some decent wages. In reality, the stimulus would need to be about three times more than they are suggesting.

[CoffeeCat]

6. The last tax rebate that Bush gave us...

...was just Bush's way of propping up the house of cards for a bit longer---so he could
say that everything failed on Obama's watch--not his.

[truebrit71]

9. ..that last tax rebate went to paydown taxes I already owed...so in essence the govt paid themselves

....a complete and utter waste of time as far as "stimulating" the economy was concerned...

[kentuck]

10. So what did you do with the other money you were going to pay down taxes with?

Or was there any? If you had sent it to the government, would it have been better?

[truebrit71]

14. That went to pay THIS year's taxes...

...

[kentuck]

15. And what would you have paid LAST year's taxes with...?

???

[truebrit71]

16. My good looks and charm....

...

[Still Sensible]

11. I believe the main reason it didn't work is because

people were already struggling big time. Average debt had skyrocketed since the last time they did it (when arguably you could see a positive effect). Look at the statistics on the increased debt load of Americans from 2002 and compare it to 2008. People had been put through two years of spiking gas prices. By the time they started sending those checks, most of it got eaten up by people catching up their overdue bills or paying down their credit cards.

[Horse with no Name]

13. and when it came

gas was $4 gallon, electric bills were sky high, groceries were skyrocketing.
It did NOTHING for me. It didn't "ease" any of my bills. It didn't persuade me to go shopping.
I put it in my pocket and never even knew it was there.
It wasn't enough to make up the difference where they were gouging us.