Thanks Congress!

I read in the paper today that the Senate voted to give new car buyers a tax break. From the article I see that the discount would amount to approximately $1553 on a $25,000 car.

According to my calculations, a 60-month loan on a $25,000 car, with no trade-in or anything, would come to $476 a month. With my tax-break savings, my car payment effectively becomes $453 a month. Boom! That's $23 I can spend on a date night with the wife at my local neighborhood Applebees, two for $20 here we come! Plus a tip to help the local waitress make her car payment.

I, of course, support this measure whole-heartedly. Plain and simple, this nation needs more cars. Mini vans preferably. Jeebus, when I think of how our ancestors had to carry their kids around in nothing more than a Lincoln Continental, I struggle to comprehend how they did it. You might not believe this, but my parents actually raised (half-successfully) two kids while driving nothing more than a Ford Granada. Unfortunately, none of us still live at home, so there's no way for Child Protective Services to get involved, but you can imagine how many nights I sat silently weeping by the phone trying to get up the courage to pick up the receiver and dial that number.

I'm also very on board with Obama's desire to strip out the protectionist "USA steel" tax break for manufactures. The last thing this country needs is a trade war. That could only lead to more manufacturing in this country and that would lead us dangerously close to become a producer, rather than consumer, nation again.

Nope, small tax breaks for large purchases is just what the USA needs right now, because if the '00s taught us anything, it is that you can't go wrong basing your economy on high consumer debt.

The Congress has finally done something right. Stood up for the little guy. Now when the wife tells me there is no reason we should be buying a pickup just because it can stop a million pound load in under 20 feet, I can tell her that the United States government wants us to buy that car. They need us to buy that car. And in places she doesn't talk about at cocktail parties, she wants me to buy that car.

I think we can all agree that just because there's a major global recession on doesn't mean we shouldn't have nice things.