The U.S. economy is in deep trouble and sinking fast and it is pulling down other economies worldwide. The proposed Trillion dollar U.S. economic stimulus package is all wrong and tax payers should be OUTRAGED!

Every person in the U.S.A. should be e-mailing their elected officials in Washington telling them:

1. Create permanent U.S. jobs with the stimulus package, not short term welfare jobs that tax payers pay for

2. Place high import tariff's on Asian crap imports, to stimulate production of quality goods in America - like we use to do 30 years ago

3. Provide loans and tax incentives, not free money, to businesses contingent on creating new jobs

4. Reduce Congressional salaries to $1/yr. until the national debt is zero - without raising or creating new taxes

5. Properly implement these measures to create permanent U.S. jobs within 90 days or be voted out of office in 2010

If you want to save your job and the economy, start e-mailing NOW !

this, here:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/

let's zoom in:

theregister.co.uk

and a bit more:

.co.uk

geddit?

and if you think point 2's protectionism is going to stimulate 'quality goods in America', well go ahead. Some lessons are never learnt.

Oh yes, and on point 3, your national debt is trillions, depending on how you measure it it can be scores of trillions. So pay off, (N trillions / #congressmen) per year = long past your lifetime. You don't understand how immensely the US is in debt.

"4. Reduce Congressional salaries to $1/yr. until the national debt is zero - without raising or creating new taxes"

BUAHAHAHAHA....HAHAHA...HUAAAAA.(agh)(agh)

/wipe off tears

/Smile on

Sure they will listen to you, sure...(poor little thing)

Protectionism doesn't really work. However, there should be some comparable taxes to import tariffs while they exist.

e.g. in Europe, there is a tax on the import of video recording devices. Why not a tax on the "services" provided by off-shore companies? There is not tax on "interactive" video devices - the rules are very complex and seemingly illogical.

France has a good method - patriotism (why on earth else would anyone buy a French car?).

Nothing is going to work until consumer confidence is restored and that's going to take 18 months, so lets think of pain management strategies for now.

About 2/3rd of the seats in Congress are up for grabs in 2010 so all of these bums can be voted out if Americans have any clue at all - which most don't.

The U.S. economic meltdown is causing a world wide economic meltdown. The U.S. national debt is $11 Trillion but in two weeks that could grow to $12-$13 Trillion when Congress and the Pres start throwing money at pork projects in an ill-fated effort to stimulate the economy. Maybe we could borrow back $20-30 Trillion from OPEC and the oil companies?

On point #4 (not #3) I'm pretty sure Paul <b>does</b> realize how much US Debt is, and that was part of his point. Not that your maths are much better than his protectionism. Doing away with the debt doesn't have to be limited to only their salaries, it can also be done by lowering spending or raising taxes, or some combination of both. The point of the $1 salary is to incentivize their abysmal performance. While much has been made in the MSM (el Reg included this time) of Bush's low approval ratings in the US, even at his lowest he's been 3-5% better than Congress.

> Not that your maths are much better than his protectionism.

It was an allegorical calculation but if you prefer...

D = $10 trillion (current US national debt rounded down lots)

C = 535 (number of congressmen)

S = $200,000 (average congressional salary, rounded up)

TCSA = 535 * $200,000 = $107 million dollars (total congressional salaries annually)

D/TCSA = years to pay of debt at $107 million per year = 93457.94392523364485981308411215 = long-past-your-lifetime-but-really-accurate-now

> Doing away with the debt doesn't have to be limited to only their salaries, it can also be done by lowering spending or raising taxes, or some combination of both.

Oh, *no* kidding?

Point is, piddling with congressional salaries changes *nothing*

As for *total* US liabilities, I've heard different figures. Here's the lowest:

" Bottom line: Taxpayers are now on the hook for a record $59.1 trillion in liabilities, a 2.3% increase from 2006. That amount is equal to $516,348 for every U.S. household. By comparison, U.S. households owe an average of $112,043 for mortgages, car loans, credit cards and all other debt combined. "

from <http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-05-28-federal-budget_N.htm>

About $230,000 for every man/woman/child in the US (assuming pop is 260 million)

Were you aware of this?

I've heard other figues of 100 trillion, 120 trillion, even 150 trillion - these aren't necessarily any less accurate for being larger (or necessarily any more accurate, to be fair).

Separate note: my neighbour is American & told me in her home town (population about 25,000) about 60% (* 60% !! *) of the houses are on the market. She knows of one house bought at $115,000 which they can't shift at $35,000. There are a lot more people living on the streets there too. It doesn't get reported widely.

[any errors in the above are mine, not my neighbour's or wiki's]