Congressional leaders and the White House hammered out an agreement for a plan to send cold, hard cash to millions of American families sometime this year. The free money, which amounts to billions of dollars, is an effort to stimulate the economy and get American taxpayers to start shopping again.
Some details:
Individuals who pay income taxes would get up to $600, working couples
$1,200 and those with children an additional $300 per child under the
agreement. Workers who make at least $3,000 but don't pay taxes would
get $300 rebates.
But there is a limit.
The rebates would phase out gradually for individuals whose income
exceeds $75,000 and couples with incomes above $150,000, aides said.
Individuals with incomes up to $87,000 and couples up to $174,000 would
get partial rebates. The caps are higher for those with children.
Many experts attribute this recession/"recession" to a crashing housing market and imploding mortgage industry. So the leaders are trying to rig a fix in that area too, as a part of today's stimulus plan.
To address the mortgage crisis, the package also raises the limits on
Federal Housing Administration loans and home mortgages that Fannie Mae
and Freddie Mac can purchase to as high as $725,000 in high-cost areas.
Those are considerable boosts over the current FHA limit of $362,000
and the $417,000 cap for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's loan purchases.
Back to the free money. Under these terms, are you getting any? What are you going to buy? Or are you just paying off bills? Can you make it until June, which is the earliest, many suspect, the money could possibly be distributed?
