Re: I'd rather see me, you and everyone else have that money stay in their paycheck for each of us to use as we sit fit rather than Washington deciding for us.
One last point from me, Techno.
The impulse of people in an economic crisis is to hoard their money and save. This is easy for the small percentage of wealthy Americans, which I'm sure describes both of us. But for the vast majority of middle class, they don't have any money to save, because the cost of living is hurting them right now, along with declining home values, loss of job, raising interest rates, and huge drops in consumer demand. People like you and I might make enough money to keep afloat in spite of that, but the rest of the country is in a death spiral.
What you can't do is ignore the problem, and you can't tell people to go out and spend money, because A) some people can't, and B) the rest of the people won't.
So having the government spend the money is a good forcing function. It gets money exchanging hands in all kinds of markets and businesses, and at the same time it actually leaves the country with more of what it needs: infrastructure, work towards energy independence (such as the housing retrofitting to lower energy consumption), highways, bridges, etc.
I might even agree with you that the government should back itself out of the picture, when the country is doing good, and leave it to individuals how to spend money. But we can't ignore this problem, and we can't leave it to individuals to do the right thing and spend. It just won't happen without intervention, and I'm certain that over time, the facts will come show that Obama's plan was the right thing to do.
Market Data 
Markets 
AI
