Dubious stimulus effect of tax rebates

Regarding rebate checks as an economic stimulus, Matson's cartoon in the Feb. 9 Daily Herald speaks volumes. It shows Uncle Sam chained to the interest payments on the national debt for the next 100 years. Because the federal government has had budget deficits since the very beginning of the Bush administration, the rebate checks cannot be written without borrowing more money.

In the last seven years the national debt has increased by $3.5 trillion. As a result, each man, woman, and child has seen his or her share of the national debt increase by almost $12,000.

After 9/11, President Bush decided that it was up to our volunteer military personnel to make all the sacrifices necessary to fight a war against terrorists. The rest of us could do our part by going shopping. Now, once again, he suggests it is our patriotic duty to do more of the same to spend our way out of an economic slump.

But, will the rebates work as a stimulus? Statistics say that the average card holder owes $10,000 in credit card debt. Many are anxious about their jobs being sent overseas. Others are facing bankruptcy as a result of health-care costs or loss of their homes in the wake of the subprime home loan fiasco.

How many people, deeply in debt, will think it wise to spend their rebate check, thereby blowing an opportunity to pay down their debt, just a little bit?

Donald G. Westlake

Wheaton