There seems to be a fair amount of people who don’t agree with my plan of doing nothing. Who will not be inspired unless actual government action takes place. For all those people here is my personal plan B for recovery:
Step 1 Stopgap measures for immediate relief:
1. Extension of unemployment benefits.
An additional 13-26 weeks of unemployment is funded federally. This will buy time for the other actions to take place and or effect. This will keep people currently looking for a job from defaulting on bills or going on aid, hurting the economy and depressing business.
2. Repeal of payroll tax indexed to the unemployment rate:
Set a sliding scale where the payroll tax would be reduced and/or deleted based on the current unemployment rate. This would not only effect all workers but can be scaled based on the current rate so a proper balance can be made between taxation and relief.
3. 3 month infrastructure review:
Each state will be required to in 3 months present a report on the current state of infrastructure prioritizing the most critical projects. The states will do this individually and will be granted a limited amount of funds to do this. This will accomplish two different things:
a. It will give a list of actual projects and costs that will be publicly presented and prioritized. Considering the emergency this will also allow people on the state level closest to the issues to make these decisions
b. It will give time to study and have hearings on any other potential recovery/stimulus/tax cut ideas without rushing a bill, thus people can make the case for their opinions with proper review.
Step 2 Stimulus funding:
4. Funding:
Once the reviews are done the specific projects will be funded. Projects selected will be based on the priorities set by the states with electoral vote being the tiebreaker projects will be federally funded. States will be given the choice of 90% funding with no adjustment for any future overruns or 75% federal funding with 20% overrun protection.
In addition any other funding/tax breaks etc that has gone through committee successfully can now get their votes.
The advantages over the current situation are huge:
All funding is reviewed and get actual hearing on the local and state level. It is defended or rejected accordingly
Relief to the newly unemployed and the still working takes place at once.
Since major funding is delayed 3 months it gives us flexibility to react to market or other actions that come up before the day.
It gives a specific time table, markets love time tables and certainty.
I still rather have my plan A but never let it be said that I don’t have a backup.
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