Posted on 02/28/2007 6:15:09 PM PST by NormsRevenge
Every child born in California would get a $500 savings account to start building a nest egg for college or down payment for a home, under a bipartisan bill introduced Wednesday in the state Senate.
A similar program has increased savings in Great Britain since 2002, but California would be the first state in the nation to enact it, said David Lesher, California program director for the nonprofit New America Foundation, based in Washington, D.C. A national savings program has been pending in Congress since 2005.
Under the bill, every child born in California after Jan. 1, 2008, would receive the money, regardless of their parents' income or immigration status. Recipients would repay the state's initial $500 investment once they turn 18.
"This is the essence of equal opportunity. Every child, every person ought to get a head start," said Sen. Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, who introduced the bill with Sen. Bob Dutton, R-Rancho Cucamonga.
About 566,000 children are expected to be born in California next year.
If families added $50 a month to the state's initial contribution, the savings account would grow to nearly $17,500 at 5 percent interest over 18 years. Steinberg said that would promote saving money in a culture that now is carrying record levels of debt and has the lowest savings rate since the Great Depression.
"It sounds like another give-away with other people's money - 'a chicken in every pot,'" said Jim Uhler, spokesman for The National Tax Limitation Committee in Roseville, a Sacramento suburb. "With the budget in the red again ... we have other pressing issues."
Dutton said the money would be "an investment in the child's future," said his spokesman, Larry Venus. "He looks at this as a hand up, not a hand out."
Steinberg said the state's $131 billion annual budget spends taxpayers' money on far more dubious programs.
"There's no question these are significant dollars," Steinberg said. "But look, we spend so much more on things that don't have nearly as much significant value."
The bill does not address what happens to the account if a child dies before turning 18.
And where, in the name of Mother McGee,
But, still and all, it's sure is great that California -- unlike here in Ohio -- has all its problems solved, and has so much money left over that it can afford to do this!
And serpentine.
Let that idiot Steinberg pay for all this.
I can just see pregnant illegals coming over the border, dropping a kid, picking up $500 in a savings account, and then disappearing into the great unwashed masses to have more kids.
Hell, half the legal citizens of California are nuts and don't deserve to breed. Now they want to pay everyone with a baby $500. Has Schwarzenneger gone bonkers or what?
The welfare parents would steal it. They even do it with the free personal pan pizzas the kids earn at Pizza Hut for the reading programs at the library.
Amen! Those are the same reasons why Alexander Hamilton, in his wisdom, insisted the Bank of the United States (ancestor of the Fed.) be a private company, not a branch of the government.
"I just don't know what to say............."
Welfare for banks.
A Bank Boondoggle.
Let me get this straight. A politician understands the tremendous power of compound interest working over great periods of time. Will this lesson be carried through as the only real solution to the horrid Social Security mess? No, maybe even the same politician would say we must continue to spend that tax income now on immediate needs, while promising to pay for future benefits from the ability of a future generation to borrow enough to pay the obligation.
The Great Disconnect, once again.
I've got an even better idea, maybe twice as good. Why not give newborns in California $1,000? That way, they'll have twice as much money as if they were given $500.
I've got an even better idea than that. Why limit this to just newborns in California? Why discriminate against people who were already born? Give this to everyone in California!
Here's the best idea of all. Why limit this to just Californians? California should give this to everyone!
And why should illegals have all the advantages? I see a line of buses, trains, and airplanes full of women, ready to pop at any moment, all coming for their check from Uncle Arnold...
Come to think of it, why bother having a baby? The country's awash with fake ID of all kinds, how hard can it be to forge a birth certificate?
If you are born again can you get $1000....grin
If they actually did this, they would then start adding the $500/acct into the Accts Receivable column, borrow (i.e. put an IOU into the treasury) against it, and spend it next year.
Next, raise taxes to cover the "inexplicable" deficit/shortfall.
Why not just send the money to Mexico, Cut out the middle man I mean child.
Suh, iff'n I puts $5 in each of muh 10 chillin's accts, ain't thet be the same diff'ence?
An, den woul'na each of dem only have to pays back $50 when dey's 18?
I hope this is retroactive...with interest.
They just don't quit, do they? Did you see this one TX?
I use the Limbaugh Doctrine of Government freebies. If $500 is good, then why not $1000, why not $10,000? College is going to be unbelievably expensive in 18 years at the current rate of increase.
I am so glad the Governor of California is a conservative and not some Hollywood Liberal married to a Kennedy, good job guys. Why do Californians always fall for glitz over substance?
Right on! What better way to encourage savings than to steal $500 from me and hand it the nearest Mexican anchor baby as a reward for his mother's fertility?
That's damn good idea. $5.00 tax everytime your picture appears on TV for more than one minute and $1.00 tax everytime your name is mentioned on TV or radio. Double for movie screen images, half for mentioning your name on the radio. Triple charges for politicians not in discharge of their duties.
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