It’s a bad idea.  Lots and lots of people think President Obama will speak the words and the mailboxes will fill with Treasury Checks.  Good luck on that one.  Some, I predict, will get very shrill in the next few months, when the promises don’t meet their expectations (which could have been made more realistic if the Teacher’s Union bothered to teach how the Government really works, but that’s a discussion for another time)

Under the best of conditions, Federal money takes time to allocate and then get to the end point of the money chain.  There’s many reasons for it, many because peopel in and out of the Government have figured the loopholes necessary to part the citizens and their money (notice the language implies, properly, that it is the citizen’s money being taken), and the rest of the rules in place to allow the Government to be able to make sure they can be held accountable to the taxpayer to show where the money went.

One site, with a great deal of material on the finanical issues facing the country is The Provocateur. Today, he cites a report from the Government we al all supposed to (overnite) be able to trust.  In this case, it would be “conservative” to take heed of the message he discusses in this post:  The Congressional Budget Office Troubling Analysis.

The basic premise?  It will take years to move the money from Congress to the people, like most of it not coming from the proposed “Stimulus Package” of $825B until sometime in 2010.

All of a sudden, I’m reminded of a smallish storm in the Gulf of Mexico.  And, oh, the irony, as the first changes to the White House website were to hammer President Bush’s handling of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

Think, for a moment, how we now enter a similar circumstance:  People, for as long as I can recall, have been taught to be ready for emergencies.  In this case, to have about 6 months of income in ready cash, you know, just for a rainy day.  So, like Katrina bearing down on the Gulf coast’s shores, the resident’s are told to be ready.  Stock up on water, batteries, canned foods, etc.  In that case, at least in NO, far too many people sat around, thinking no harm would come their way, then…when it did, hollared for the Federal Government to come to their aid.  Thankfully, it wasn’t all of the LA resident,s but far too many.

The similarity to now?  For years, we, as a nation, have been on a diet of debt financially.  Now, with the storm gone at least partially by (we may be sitting in the eye right now), to many are sitting around the virtual SuperDome, screaming into cameras, demanding to know where the Federal Government is in getting them relief.

The differences?  At least FEMA wasn’t deliberately sabotaged in it’s ability to do what it did, much less have any real blame for the act of nature the happened.  In the case of the housing crisis, the Democrats, aided by enough Republicans who couldn’t say “no,” did manage to exacerbate the conditions for the onset of the calamity.

The question:  Is it still a good idea to let the President and Congress create/pull out of the ecomony $825B for at least a year, or 18 months, while promising to help us now?

My thought:  Better to keep the money in the pockets of the people, hoping they’ll pay bills and avoid defaulting on loans.

What say you?

Action item:  Let your elected representatives know how you feel about this.  Move forward, or put the brakes on and re-examine the plan.

Recommendation:  Keep up with The Provocateur and improve your economic knowledge.