I hope that some of those that don't understand Fred's satire read your post Skunk.
I'll add this for educational purposes:
Bailout = taking wealth from A and B to give to C (where C has government ties). A and B are taxpayers.
Tax rebates = taking wealth from A and B to give to C (where C is A and B)
[The money is usually printed, because government has no wish to shrink. This makes our dollars worth less and in that way inflation is an invisible tax reducing everyones purchasing power.]
Stimulus package = same thing.
[How can taking wealth out of one part of the economy and giving to another part of the economy (which all the same economy) help anything, especially when it passes through government hands on the way?]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If our government shrank by 50%, the Federal Reserve was eliminated, taxes were correspondingly cut in half, and we went on the Gold standard (to force a balanced budget), our economy would take off so fast that other nations of the world would have to follow suit or be left behind. If we continue as we are, we will soon be a third world country.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Dept. of Energy was instituted under Jimmy Carter, after the Arab oil embargo. It was created for the purpose of getting us off foreign oil dependence. They have over 16,000 employees and over 40,000 contract employees, and these are old numbers. Can anyone tell me anything that they have done other than file reports?
The Federal Reserve was founded by JP Morgan and cronies in 1913. Their purpose was to stabilize our money supply. It was their unstable policy that caused the great depression and the crisis we now face. Remember when Greenspan manipulated money supply and rates in 2001, 2002. It was the seed of the present bubble burst.