Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Economic Stimulus for Outdoorsmen?

Where's the stimulus package for outdoorsmen? It seems that Washington took care of many segments of society, but left those of us who hunt and fish out in the cold.
Okay, I know it's February and most of us are out in the cold anyway, except those of you down south who are cursed with all of that monotonous nice weather.
What I mean is that we were overlooked when it came time to hand out the hand-outs. Where's our economic boost? Unemployment figures are soaring. What do the bureaucrats think all of these out-of-work people are going to be doing?
The unemployed could stay home and watch CNN reports on how much of our money is going overseas to help countries that will still hate us anyway. Or stories on how China is slowly but surely taking ownership of our country. Or feel-good accounts of how we're giving free college tuition and healthcare to illegal aliens who really should be given nothing more than a parachute and a drop-off into Mexican air space.
No, it would be too depressing to sit around and listen to all of that. I've got a feeling that a good number of the unemployed will go fishing. So by helping the fishermen, Washington might be helping a good number of the unemployed.
There should be a special tax break just for those who hunt and fish. With more people unemployed and therefore more people spending more time hunting and fishing, we will be boosting the economy through sporting goods sales.
That would be fair payback. After all, sportsmen have paid millions in special taxes over the years that were attached to the purchases of sporting goods.
There should special check boxes on our tax forms. Check a box if you hunt or fish and receive a rebate so you can go out and purchase more guns and fishing rods, thereby stimulating the economy and getting us out of this slump.
Crazy idea? You're probably right. Let's just keep giving more money to bank executives. They're the ones so stressed out by this financial crisis that they have to keep taking expensive business trips just to keep their sanity.