Recently I was talking to a friend about how little good Bush’s bailout and Obama’s economic stimulus bill were doing. My suggestion was to give everyone over 60 two million dollars. I was only half joking. Then my brother in law sent me this via email:

Dear Mr. President:

Please find below my suggestion for fixing America ‘s economy. Instead of giving billions of dollars to companies that will squander the money on lavish parties and unearned bonuses, use the following plan.

You can call it the Patriotic Retirement Plan:

There are about 40 million people over 50 in the work force. Pay them $1 million apiece severance for early retirement with the following stipulations:

1) They MUST retire. Forty million job openings – Unemployment fixed.
2) They MUST buy a new American CAR. Forty million cars ordered – Auto Industry fixed.
3) They MUST either buy a house or pay off their mortgage – Housing Crisis fixed.

It can’t get any easier than that! If more money is needed, have all members of Congress and their constituents pay their taxes…

Now in principal I heartily agree but unless my math is wrong forty million times one million is forty trillion. I don’t think even the government would spend that much money.  Of course my idea of giving everyone over sixty $2,000,000 isn’t going to work either.

I don’t’ have a lot of hope for the current stimulus bill, more than the bailout but since I think the bailout was a colossal blunder that’s not saying much.

So do I have a sensible bailout plan? Yes I do. Right now workers and companies are levied a 15.3% payroll tax for the Social Security and Medicare programs – which they split 50/50.  I propose lowering that tax to 13% with 2% going into a guaranteed savings plan for the employee. It’s a win/win/win scenario – every worker’s paycheck would be larger, companies would have less expense and banks would see more money as well.

Tags: America, Catchy slogans, fairness, Patriotic, president