This isn’t about putting money in everyone’s hands. It isn’t about making sure everyone is treated equally. It is about stimulating the economy. It is about pumping up consumer spending during a period of slow or negative growth.

Personally, I would have preferred to see the stimulus package tailored to give more money to the very poor and less to middle class and rich people. I am a rock-ribbed conservative and would ordinarily balk at the idea of sending income tax rebates to people who don’t really pay income taxes in the first place. Still, in this particular situation the idea isn’t to craft grand tax policy. It isn’t supposed to achieve some ideal balance. It is supposed to get money spent ASAP. Poor people are much more likely to spend money. Middle class people (like me, for example) are much more likely to either save it or retire debt.

Still, the time for discussing this is past. This is one of those times when an adequate solution right now is much better than an ideal one later on. The longer the Senate (mostly the Democrats) drags this out in pursuit of fairness (i.e. making sure very constituency is paid off), the less of an impact it will have. Nothing could be more foolish than delaying economic stimulus so long in pursuit of “fairness” that it actually arrives too late to do any good.