Stimulitis

Posted February 9, 2009 by Tom Ziglar

I asked Dad what he thought about the stimulus package. He had a faraway look in his eye. You could tell he was searching his 82 years of collective memories and wisdom. "Son," he said, "there ain't no free lunch."

I don't know about you, but I am suffering from a severe case of Stimulitus. Stimulitus is a condition brought on by borrowing money to be spent by people who produce nothing,for things we don't need, to help people who either caused the problem or don't believe in paying taxes. Stimulitus is what you get when you realize that the people you have elected value self-interest first and foremost, and believe that common sense is a dreadful disease that can only be cured by printing money.

Stimulitus creates some very interesting math problems. My daughter is in 8th grade and occasionally I help her with the dreaded math word problem. Here is a word problem for you. The current $750 billion Stimulitus plan (give or take $200 billion or more) says we will either save or create 2.5 million jobs. How much does it cost to save or create one job? Dude, that is like $300,000 per job! I want one of those jobs!

Here is an idea for you. We elected a bunch of "smart" people. Let's tell them to cut $500 billion in government overhead and reduce our taxes by $250 billion this year. That's a $750 billion adjustment just like the current Stimulitus plan. See, I can work with big numbers, too; the only difference is the reality that we are going to have to do with less for a time. Of course, 90% of us have already figured that out, and for those of you without common sense, 90% is like, a lot.