What Benefits Will I See From The Stimulus Bill?
The last week or so I’ve been looking at the 2009 Economic Stimulus bill that was passed, and talking a little more in depth about what some of the benefits are that people can expect to receive. We talked about home buyer tax credits, sales tax credits for new car buyers, and overall stimulus package benefits. Today I thought we could look at some of the direct benefits that people will see in their paychecks, tax returns, or in other ways.
- Making Work Pay Credit: The stimulus bill will give a $400 credit per worker and a $800 credit per working couple. Almost everyone will receive this. The full credit would be paid to people making $75,000 or less ($150,000 per dual-earner couple). A partial credit would be paid to those making above those amounts but no more than $100,000 ($200,000 for couples). The credit would also be refundable, which means that even very low-income families who don’t make enough to owe income tax would be able to claim it. For most working individuals, the credit will be paid over time at roughly $15 per period, assuming 26 pay periods in a year. People who are self-employed can adjust their quarterly tax filings to account for the credit.
- One-time payments to those who don’t work: For retirees, disabled individuals and others who don’t work, including Social Security recipients, the bill provides a one-time $250 payment. The money should arrive within 120 days of the bill’s signing. More details here.
- Unemployment : In a normal year you would have to pay federal income taxes on federal unemployment benefits. 2009 will be different. You won’t have to pay taxes on the first $2,400 in benefits you receive. Hopefully you’ll be able to find a new job before long and this won’t be an issue!
- Health Insurance: If you get fired, your company is required, thanks to a law known as Cobra, to allow you to pay to keep your health insurance, generally for up to 18 months. Problem is that it can be quite expensive. If you were forced out of a job between Sept. 1, 2008, and Dec. 31, 2009 the federal government will now subsidize 65 percent of your health insurance premium for up to nine months. The caveat is that your income in the year you receive the subsidy cannot be more than $125,000 for individuals or $250,000 for married couples filing their taxes jointly.
So those are a few of the direct benefits individuals will see as a result of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
How Will We Pay For The Stimulus?
Personally these things sound good on the face, but when you start adding all the dollar figures up, it’s hard to figure out where the money to pay for all of these things is going to come from. Our grandchildren’s children are probably still going to be paying for all this! What do you think about these benefits that we’ll be seeing from this stimulus bill? Are the costs worth it? Check out this post for more details on how individuals will be affected by the stimulus package.
“Our grandchildren’s children are probably still going to be paying for all this!” Yes, they probably are, but many economists believe that even this large a stimulus package is far from enough to stop the nation from sliding farther into a depression. Instead of blaming the deficit on the new administration, perhaps you should point out that Clinton left Bush a budget surplus which Bush soon turned into a whopping deficit with tax cuts for the wealthy and $16 billion/month spent in Iraq and Afghanistan. The eventual total cost of the war in Iraq is estimated to be $3 trillion. Is that unnecessary expenditure more worthy than creating jobs, financing education, and rebuilding our country’s infrastructure?
Probably not very much, I believe it was something like $13 more per paycheck. The $400 over the year we will be getting would do much more if we received it at once.
@Teresa: I voted for Bush and can easily admit one of his greatest failings was failure to veto the wild spending bills that came out of Congress during his term. But remember, the president cannot spend a dime without congressional authorization.
I think your anger is misplaced – it is the Congress who deserves the blame for these deficits. It is Congress, and the previous administrations (primarly Clinton, but some under Bush, too) who leaned on banks to dole out more mortgages to those who could not afford it. That’s what got us here, and continuing to spend will not help us get out. In fact, the opposite is true.
Frugal Dads last blog post..Should I Pay Off My Mortgage?
Oh please, this is NOT Clinton’s fault. That is just ridiculous. I am so sick of whiny republicans not accepting responsibility for their party’s actions.
If some of our wasteful citizens would have lived within their means we would not be in this mess. My parents raised me to be frugal and wise with my $$, to bad so many other people didn’t learn that lesson.
I think there’s plenty of blame to go around, both to republicans and democrats. Clinton did in fact push for the legislation that made banks much more likely to give loans to people who couldn’t afford it, along with Barney Frank (who is now feigning outrage at every turn) and others. The republicans haven’t been fiscally responsible either, spending money like there’s no tomorrow. It really is sad that so many feel like they can’t trust their elected politicians nowadays.
I would argue they’re both to blame, we have a system of checks and balances. If the President rubber stamped a bill, then he’s at fault too. If the Congress approves a budget, then they are all at fault, regardless of how they voted.
Many Presidents are to blame for the current crisis, not just Bush. Clinton had a hand in it also when he allowed commercial banks to get involved in investment banking and the changes to Fannie and Freddie.
But let’s move past blame and get towards fixing.
jims last blog post..Stop Watching Market News, Start Watching LOLCATS
I agree. The time has come to move past blame and figure out how we can get this country back on track.
Prestons last blog post..There Goes My Money Up the Chimney
Will this weekly amount of extra money in our checks going to be retroactive from the date the bill went into effect.