Opinion: Come get your Obama money!

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

I was doing some research on the Web today for an editorial about the economy when I recalled something a Brookings Institute scholar told me a couple of weeks ago. The Tax Policy Center -- a joint effort by Brookings and the Urban Institute -- was putting together a report card on the tax provisions of the economic stimulus proposal moving through Congress. So I went to Google and did a search for Brookings stimulus. In addition to the results, up popped the following ad:

New Obama Stimulus Checks

I got a new stimulus grant I never
need to repay to start a business
www.officialpersonalgrants.com

There you have it -- even before the bill makes it through Congress, our wild-eyed liberal new president is already spreading the wealth around. Heh heh heh.The advertiser, who identified herself only as Jessica, said she used the $12,000 government handout not just to start a Google-based business ($5,000 per month in revenue on only 12 hours of work per week!) but also pay off debts and buy a new laptop. Schweet!! Oh, I want to believe ... but I don’t.

You have to admire the clever topicality of this come-on. I mean, most people heard Barack Obama calling for a new stimulus package as a candidate and again as President-elect. And so few people pay attention to the details, there’s probably millions of people out there who think the money’s already in the pipeline. If we could somehow harness this kind of entrepreneurship, we’d be well on our way to recovery! Then again, this kind of entrepreneurship in the field of housing finance (stated income mortgages, pick-a-payment loans, synthetic CDOs, etc. etc.) is what put us where we are today.

For your safety, dear readers, I removed the links from the ad. Please resist the temptation to claim your stimulus check.