As the guardians of the economy have slowly woken up to a reality that anyone living in less than three homes can describe from experience, there has been a recent avalanche of "assistance" coming from the government treasury American taxpayers in the form of cash infusions in a desperate, haphazard effort to resuscitate the staggering US economy. As the Fed meets again to decide if any pain should be inflicted on investors, or just dump it all on the consumer, and the Senate debates another attempt to minimize the carnage wrought by unchecked greed in the housing market to the tune of a mere $4 billion, I thought it would be a good time to see just how much CPR the economy has received lately, and whether it's doing any good.

Short answer; It isn't.
Maybe it's time to pronounce.
Cause of death (with links) is under the sheet.

Cross-posted by Will Bunch at my Philadelphia Daily News blog, Attytood:

That waddling sound we heard here in the Philly area this afternoon was a quick-in-and-out from America's second lamest duck, Vice President Dick Cheney, who snuck in with little fanfare for maybe the most empty photo-op since Ronald Reagan's handlers invented them. Apparently your federal rebate check may come from here in the Philadelphia region, a fact that hasn't sped the arrival of mine yet:

Let’s just call this colossally shortsighted and ill-advised "rebate program" what it is - a giveaway of money that this government doesn’t have to the oil companies, the credit card companies and the retail industry.

We the People - at least those whose income levels are in the range where they are low enough to receive the rebates but most likely too low to be able to do anything meaningful with the rebates - are merely the intermediary between this corporate welfare program and the true intended recipients.

I just finished doing my taxes for last year and despite having a taxable income of only $25,000, I am not eligible for one of the upcoming $600 tax rebates.  I guess that makes me officially rich.

For what is probably the fifth time in the last fortnight, the BBC reports President Bush is uptalking the collapsing economy again.

President George Bush has attempted to restore confidence in the US economy, amid the deepening financial crisis.

Speaking at the Economic Club of New York the President acknowledged that growth had slowed but said that the economy is basically sound.

He said the economy was "obviously going through a tough time."

The problem is, no matter how much he denies recession is here, that doesn't change the truth.  And the truth is that years of financial mismanagement and corporate greed has driven America over the edge of the financial precipice and into a recession that's going to outlast the Bush administration.

If it's such a great idea for everyone to get between $300 and $1,200 in tax rebates, I have a few questions.

Does this money actually stimulate the economy? Let's assume for a minute that people aren't using this tax rebate to pay their mortgage one last time. Let's assume that most people aren't using this tax rebate to fend off their credit cards or student loan companies for another month.

Let's pretend that everyone is going to take their tax rebate and use it to put a down payment on a car or run to the shopping mall and buy clothes. This will of course create jobs and raise incomes and rescue the housing market and prove that conservatism works.

Why don't we get a tax rebate every month? I mean, if it's such a good idea in May, why isn't it a good idea in June and July and August? If the tax rebate stimulates the economy, and stimulating the economy is unquestionably good, why shouldn't we stimulate the economy every month of every year? If we can't afford to do it one time - but do it anyway, why can't we not afford to do it every month - but do it every month anyway?

Let's take a look at 2 headlines, one real, one not.

Tax rebate deal could mean checks by May

WASHINGTON - With unprecedented speed and cooperation, Congress and the White House forged a deal Thursday to begin rushing tax rebates of $600 to $1,200 to most tax filers by spring, hoping they will spend the money just as quickly and jolt the ailing economy to life.

China, Japan, Saudi Arabia and others chip in to bail out Americans.

BEIJING - Fearing that the US consumer is almost tapped out, a coalition of developing countries today agreed to throw the struggling "shop 'til they droppers" a short term lifeline. Together they have chipped in to give America a $150 billion "credit card limit increase" hoping that grateful Americans will continue to buy Chinese toys, Japanese cars and Saudi oil and so keep the world economy humming.

The economic stimulus package has come out.  

The rebates, which would go to about 116 million families, had appeal for both Democrats and Republicans. Pelosi's staff noted that they would include $28 billion in checks to 35 million working families who wouldn't have been helped by Bush's original proposal. Republicans, for their part, were pleased that the bulk of the rebates — more than 70 percent, according to an analysis by Congress' Joint Tax Committee — would go to individuals who pay taxes.

The other 30% goes to individuals who "don't pay taxes". Who are these people?  

By now everyone has heard about the "rebate" or "stimulus" checks that President Bush has proposed to jump start the economy to keep it from sliding into recession on his "watch" the problem with it, it it's to late, for most of us we are living the recession, lost homes, high cost of gas and utilities, and food  etc. My SSD check was increased 2.3% this year, the problem with that is according to the news, inflation was 4.1% for 2007. So for those of us dependent on Social Security we are behind and just getting behinder.

President Bush wants to give "stimulus checks" to taxpayers, only those people who pay in enough to get real return checks, the top side of middle class I have seen singles making 65,000 or couples making 115,000 would get 800 each or 1600 for a family. He wants them to go shopping again, not save it or pay down existing bills, but splurge and buy new stuff and to hell with us "poor people" after all we don't pay taxes.

Videodoctor Bill Frist proposed a bribe to the American people yesterday; he and his Republican cronies think so little of us that they offered us $100 per household to sit down and shut up.  Frist's offer is so transparent that even the conservatives can see through it:

"It could be one of the dumbest ideas of the year," said Jerry Taylor...

Taylor pointed out that...the rebate would go only to people who paid federal income tax last year, meaning it would be no help at all to the millions of low-income Americans who pay no income taxes but arguably suffer the most in times of rising fuel prices....It would cost more than $10 billion.

[T]he same tax rebate would go to the Wall Street trader who takes the subway to work every day and to the rural Wisconsin farmer who uses thousands of gallons of fuel in his business, Taylor noted.

Hell has truly frozen over anytime I agree with the CATO Institute.  Of course, there's an evil twist that only a Republican could engineer...