Stimulus: Direct handouts not the best way

Printing trillions of dollars in “stimulus money”and handing it out at the rate of $1,200 per person? Really?

That handout was 75% of the cost of World War II in today’s dollars.

What has been “stimulated” if people used the checks to pay their rent or mortgage? They certainly have been unable to spend it at restaurants, movie theaters, sporting events, concerts and other things that might actually stimulate the economy.

I would have proposed an alternative: a six-month moratorium and forgiveness on payment of rent by tenants or mortgage payments by homeowners.

To level the playing field, there should be a national moratorium on all residential mortgage payments.

Freeze the existing balance with no interest and no penalties to accumulate. Payments to recommence in six months. Extend all residential mortgages by an additional six-month term.

We avoid saddling the country with trillions of dollars of additional debt, avoid foreclosures, avoid homelessness, and the country hopefully is allowed a reasonable time to recover.

For residential property owners without a mortgage, and those who depend on rental income, federal assistance upon proper application and sufficient proof would solve that issue.