This is hilarious. First, you start by praising reasoned criticism instead of oversimplifications and whatnot, then you immediately launch into an attack on “Right Wing Marketeers” for what you* think* they’d do if Obama didn’t do this.
Time to look in the mirror, Mr. Oversimplification.
And since when do free marketers get their panties in a twist when governments don’t hand out free money? Your oversimplification doesn’t even make sense.
But first you admit, in a backhanded way, that conservatives actually oppose these handouts for good reason:
Your hatred of all things on the right is leading you into incoherence.
Then of course Squink and gonzomax have to jump in and turn this reasonable criticism of Obama into an attempt to bash Republicans, as usual.
But good on Simplicio and RTFirefly for staying on topic and making some actual good points.
As for the subject at hand, the big problem with this from a stimulative and social justice point of view is that the money is being handed out to all seniors. First of all, Seniors are the most likely people to save the additional money instead of spending it. Second, there are a lot of very wealthy seniors who don’t need this money. Obama would have done more good, both in terms of stimulus and easing financial hardship, by spending an equivalent amount of money by giving one-time rebate checks to people who are currently unemployed.
If you ask me, the likely motivation for this has a lot more to do with shoring up support from seniors for his health care plan. They’re the ones who are really going to get shafted. They’ve already got universal coverage, and the plan requires major cuts to Medicare. Obama’s simply trying to buy them off with a gift.
This is not chump change, by the way. The cost of this is about 12.5 billion dollars - more than half the budget of NASA.