STIMULUS: Don’t become dependent

The first stimulus passed in 2020 as my memory says was around $900 billion. It was to give most people $1,200 plus $500 for every dependent. There were some other benefits for those people who had been unemployed so long, etc. That was during the Trump administration.

The new stimulus price tag is $1.9 trillion. This is the old carrot and stick that has been used for thousands of years. The people are now awaiting anxiously for their check. Free money, what a deal.

The bulk of the people don’t realize that they will pay back many times more than they receive. One billion dollars in $100 bills weighs 10 tons. One trillion weighs 10,000 tons. If every person in the U.S. received $2,000 and there are 350 million people, we are looking at $700 billion. So now we know where the bulk of the residual money is going. The biggest share is going to bale out cities and states that have been poorly managed for decades.

Idaho has always been a frugal economically run state and we don’t like being forced to help pay for these cities that let gangs and criminals control them. Much of the balance is dished out in such a way as to make the populist dependent on a government that will have complete control of our lives. It is time to say Enough is Enough.

BOB HOLLINGSWORTH

Wolf Lodge

Editor’s note: The first stimulus signed by former President Trump was $2 trillion, on March 27, 2020. Trump’s second stimulus package, signed last Dec. 27, was $900 billion.