That’s a lot of greenbacks, cabbage, clams, dough, scratch, moolah, bacon and Benjamins!

It appears that I was a tad premature on the receipt of the latest round of stimulus funds – but expect the IRS to move quickly and deposit your monies. 1.9 trillion dollars is a lot of money. Surprisingly, (maybe?) I have not seen a lot of conversation about who will, or when, this money will need paid back. The piper will come calling at some point – probably it will be our (boomer age and up folks) kids and our grandkids that will inherit this debt.

To put this in some sort of perspective, if you can even do that with this much money – the federal budget was $4.5 trillion last year – so that should give you some idea of how much money we are talking about. Is this the right direction to go? Or should the monies have been invested in infrastructure – and perhaps some of it is.

But let’s not overlook the necessity of this money for millions of Americans. Quite frankly, millions of Americans need this money to help make ends meet, to make the mortgage or rent payment and to put food on the table. For many, this money will not be spent on a new big screen TV or the latest and smartest cellphone.

Will some of this money go where it’s not needed – or to those that don’t need it? Of course, We are talking about the federal government, remember? The Brookings Institute is just one of the many resources on the web that you can research for more details – and although this does not get down in the weeds – here is how they broke it down into four major buckets.

The first category is COVID-19 containments and vaccination, aid to state and local governments, and increased federal spending ($750 billion) – this includes monies for state and local aid; and money for vaccination, testing and tracing, and reopening schools.

Next is direct aid to families ($600 billion) – this includes the $1,400 per person rebate checks and the child tax credit expansion. Thirdly, aid to financially vulnerable households ($400 billion) this category includes the additional $400 per week in unemployment benefits and the extension of the pandemic unemployment programs.

Finally, aid to businesses ($150 billion) – this category includes loans and grants to small businesses and paid sick leave.

Again, it’s a lot of money! An article in Barron’s magazine by former director of the Congressional Budget Office Douglas Holtz-Eakin (I have no idea who this is, nor do I know what party affiliation he is) claims that the $1.9 trillion is far too large and that it will not have the impact on the economy that the current administration wants. He reports that we would have been better off sending more money to the long term unemployed versus pretty much everyone.

But since the government can’t even figure out who, or why, almost half of the unemployment claims in the state of Ohio alone are fraudulent, it would be almost too much to ask for this to happen. If this happens to you, research it to find out the steps you need to take. This is urgent and I am referring to the fraudulent unemployment claim.

That was heavy stuff – here is my prediction for the men’s NCAA tournament – my crazy final four predictions – that is as far as I’m going this week – Illinois, Iowa, Ohio State and Michigan. That’s right – a total domination by the Big 10 this year. They have the toughest league by far. Even mighty Gonzaga will be knocked out by the Hawkeyes.

Category: Mark's Musings, Opinion