The SUN Program

Description, Features and Benefits

There is a simple solution to our economic plight. A straightforward solution that can not only stop job losses but create millions of jobs in a matter of months. A one-step solution that helps all Americans equally, not just a select few like the special interest government sponsored stimulus programs. An easy solution that will restore confidence in our economy and rebuild tax revenues without raising taxes. That solution is the Stimulate-Us-Now, or SUN Program.
If the Government really wants to stimulate the economy, they need to encourage consumers to spend. They must provide a targeted and foolproof stimulus package for this to occur. The solution is to “force” people to spend in a manner that is helpful to the economy.

This SUN Program has the following desirable features and benefits;

The US Government should immediately distribute $3,000 in prepaid Credit Cards (“Cards”) to the 230+ million American Citizens and permanent residents age 18 and older. This would result in about $700 billion in consumer spending.

SUN directly stimulates the economy, unlike the current government plan. Retailers and manufacturers get large orders, employees are kept or rehired, more people on the payrolls increases payroll taxes to help address the deficit, spur additional spending, and keep people in their homes as a result of job retention. Many who use the cards will be making purchases in excess of the value of the cards. Thus the $3,000 is a catalyst that could generate additional spending.

Cards would have a 6-month expiration date to spur fast spending. “Fearful” consumers, who are otherwise holding onto cash because they have no confidence in the economy or they are worried about their jobs, would be forced to spend the Cards, or lose them! People will regain confidence, resulting in additional spending beyond the value of the Cards.

Cards cannot directly be “saved” or used to retire debt. The cards must be “spent” (unlike tax rebates or stimulus checks from the US Treasury), and they are only valid in the United States.

Every adult American citizen 18-years or older will benefit; it is not discriminatory in any way.

Why give Detroit’s automakers the cash to survive by funding losses when people aren’t buying cars, when you could give people the ability to buy cars with Cards, allowing Detroit to survive in a more sustainable way?

Car dealerships, retailers and manufacturers will likely provide incentives to attract people to spend their Cards for their particular goods. This will create excellent bargains for buyers!

Manufacturers will benefit from large orders, which will ultimately result in more capital investment, further driving the economy forward as durable goods orders for equipment rises.

Those who lost jobs and are on the verge of losing their home or going bankrupt would have a good chance to get a job and save their homes. This helps remove troubled assets from the banks’ balance sheets.

Americans can spend the cards as they wish, and in ways that will benefit them best individually. While some may choose to buy groceries or fuel which they would have done anyway, thus indirectly giving them “cash” to retire debt or make a needed mortgage payment, others will actually spend more than the $3,000. For example, a husband and wife would have $6,000 to buy a car that they would have liked to buy anyway, but they were reluctant to spend the money out of fear. Now, they could actually be committing $20,000+ that helps automakers stay in business, as a far more desirable alternative to the US Government funding losses which was an unsustainable approach. In another example, a couple contemplating spending $10,000 for new flooring in their home now only need to add $4,000 of their own money to do it. In reality, it is possible that over $1+ trillion in consumer spending could result from this plan.

The US would issue the cards through existing US-based banks, which would then benefit by getting credit card fees from vendors where we spend the Cards.

The $700 billion in SUN spending is more than 2 times the decline in GDP (Gross Domestic Product) consumer spending from the 3rd Q 2008 through the 1st Q 2009 (calculated by comparing actual GDP consumer spending with projected quarter over quarter 1.38% growth rate consumer spending, which was the average of the prior 13 quarters). It is clearly a sizeable enough stimulus program to have a major impact on the consumer spending component of the GDP.

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