Americans Deserve An (Income Tax) Holiday

Reread thse two key grafs you failed to mention, Brian . . . The Federal Reserve, Treasury Department and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation have lent or spent almost $3 trillion over the past two years and pledged up to $5.7 trillion more. The Senate is to vote this week on an economic-stimulus measure of at least $780 billion. It would need to be reconciled with an $819 billion plan the House approved last month. and. . . The pledges, amounting to almost two-thirds of the value of everything produced in the U.S. last year, are intended to rescue the financial system after the credit markets seized up about 18 months ago. The promises are composed of about $1 trillion in stimulus packages, around $3 trillion in lending and spending and $5.7 trillion in agreements to provide aid. The total already tapped has decreased about 1 percent since November, mostly because foreign central banks are using fewer dollars in currency-exchange agreements called swaps.

I think the pay of government officials should be reduced by a factor of their spending.....i.e. the more of our money they spend the less money they get to keep. This should apply to all current and future income streams for them until they repay the amount owed.

Here's an idea cut both houses of congress pay. Jay Leno phrase it best on the issue: congressmen get paid 2.00 a day and take away thier perks.

Yeah, that's what you can call an excellent idea and a "pipe dream", both at the same time. The government loves to hand out money, to make them look good, but they also like to decide where it goes. Basically to what personal agendas or supporters. They would never consider giving the American people back that much money to due with as they please. They won't give away power. Business Opportunities

We're out of our minds with this !!!!!!!!

The only problem with Federal Income Tax cuts for people who actually PAY Federal Income Taxes is that liberals think we do not deserve to have control of our own money. Rather they will spend the money for us, on things we do not want to spend it on, or give "refundable tax credits" to those who do NOT pay Federal Income Taxes. Instead Jan 1 2010, all of us who do pay Federal Income Taxes will be paying even more than we do now, (that is when the Bush tax cuts are due to expire). Can anyone say "marriage penalty"?

Taxpayers could declare April 2009 as the Tax Holiday Month and increase tax withholdings so a minimum amount of taxes is withheld. We could then have the upcoming tax rebate put right into our pockets in April of 2009. Declaring a Tax Holiday during the April filing deadline would be a symbolic gesture to let the tax cheats in Washington know as well as other government employees who are continuing to pork out at the taxpayers expense. If ww wait for Congress to give the taxpayers a break, we'll never see it.

Does anyone realize that 10 Trillion dollars is $33,333 PER PERSON in the US? How many don't work such as children? How many are retired? How many are BELOW the levels to pay ANY taxes at all? Remove all those do DO NOT pay taxes and the number is SUPER STAGGERING! If we tax businesses; we tax ourselves by increasing the cost of goods sold. If we increase taxes, there is less money to spend or invest beyond normal household expenses. Obewan Obabma says SPEND SPEND SPEND; it doesn't work. It has been tried. We are heading totally in the wrong direction.

To make the tax holiday really work, they ought to do the same for employers and give them a holiday on taxes they pay on top off withholdings; that savings would result in higher employment. But, this is too simple and straight forward for our government to do something like this.

How about this idea...Help the average consumer by forgiving all debt interest paid to financial institutions for 5 years and have the bailout plan reimburse the financial instituitons with a fair interest rate instead of the over inflated rates some of them currently charge. Allow the consumer to make a minimum monthly payment of lets say for example take the current indebted balance and divide it by 120 (ten years). It would give the consumer a 5 year window to pay down or eliminate their debt. I know this sounds similar to chapter 13 bankruptcy. But I believe it would increase consumer confidence and spending and a feeling that the trillions of dollars actually did something for the average taxpayer.

Flexibility is the key to indecision. If you don't know where you're going, any road will do.

What comes after trillion? I feel like we'll be there in no time.

Brian, Do you feel as HELPLESS as I do? We can only watch the government make rushed and irrational decisions that will affect/ruin our lives and our children's lives for many years to come? -j

personal income tax revenue highlighted in red will likely increase to pay for all this stuff...hope it is not a glorified toilet flush.

great idea, but the socialists now in power in the white house and congress will never go for it. That would put the people in control instead of these socialists in control of my money.

Tax hollidays make to much sense, they will ever go fot it. Simple things are to hard to hide thing in and are to transparent. But it would be CHANGE.