We'll show you our check if you show us yours.

We were advised by our tax preparer (Liberty Tax Service… our first plug...? Yes, that’s the one with the ummm… rather down-on-their-luck folks dressed up in those ridiculous Statue of Liberty outfits waiving to passer-bys in traffic) that we would be receiving our $600 economic stimulus check in the mail around May 9th. Vrooom-vrooom. Can you feel the excitement? We’ve half a notion to divvy it up among our nieces and nephews and have it put into some sort of trust fund, whereby they could only access it to pay down the mountain of debt we will be leaving them.

True. The shear numbers we're talking about (nieces and nephews, that is) makes this well-intended gesture more symbolic than anything else, but its far greater than any real help they can expect from our elected representatives who speak in grave tones about the environmental legacy we will leave future generations but can’t quite seem to muster the necessary solemnity when speaking of unfunded entitlements future generations will need to cover.

We will applaud John McCain then for at least carrying the right tune on Medicare and Social Security in his speech today that was covered more extensively in the previous post:

“They and others argue that the tax increase is necessary in part to finance Social Security and Medicare. Unfortunately, this claim only serves to remind us of Congress' consistent failure to repair both of these programs even under the best of circumstances. For years, Congress has been buying time, and leaving the great challenge of entitlement reform for others to deal with. And now the two contenders in the other party have even proposed enormous new federal commitments before the old commitments have been kept -- trusting that others, somewhere down the road, will handle the financing and make all the numbers come out right…. And you have my pledge: as president I will work with every member of Congress -- Republican, Democrat, and Independent -- who shares my commitment to reforming and protecting Medicare and Social Security.”

Anyway, we would love to hear what you are going to be doing with your economic stimulus check. Drop us a line in the comment section.