Billions, no trillions, of dollars are now being dedicated by our government to save our financial institutions, the same financial institutions whose greedy mistakes got us into our present economic difficulties, but who seem to be unwilling to respond to our collective largesse by liberating the liquidity that might help us correct the desperate economic situation. It turns out that the bankers? first priority is to save the banks, not the economy. Yet very little is being dedicated to saving those of us who, as individuals and families, are also victims of this debacle.

There is talk of making it possible?or at least easier?for families to save their homes from imminent foreclosure, although it is proving dauntingly difficult to design a workable way of doing this. Also steps are already being taken to extend payments to the unemployed over a longer period. And the incoming Obama Administration stands ready to initiate a vast construction program that will put thousands of workers to work building and repairing highways, roads, bridges, schools and other public structures.

This is fine as far as it goes. But it leaves the rest of us sitting around hoping that all these palliatives will bring solvency to us and our families. Meanwhile our only option seems to be to hunker down and stop spending, which of course only makes things worse.

We need a dramatic program to bring liquidity to the masses, which will in turn stimulate consumer spending. You will remember that last year the Bush Administration hit upon a strategy of giving each taxpayer a few hundred dollars each as a means of stimulating spending, but it turned out that this stimulated saving more than spending, perhaps because the very gesture itself caused anxiety over economic conditions among the recipients.

We need a plan that will be a sure thing, that will get those dollar bills flying around, heating up the economy and lifting our spirits, and that will guarantee the required national spending spree.

The obvious solution is for the government to pay our credit card bills, up to a stated maximum for a given period of time?let?s say five thousand dollars every six months, on a sliding scale depending on income (the lower the family income, the higher the eligibility.) All you have to do is be a taxpayer. You bundle up your credit card bills (up to the maximum of your eligibility) and send them off to the IRS every six months. Mastercard and Visa et al will love this system because they?ll be collecting interest for the five months when you let the bills slide, and the system will eliminate the deadbeat problem.

This plan has the great virtue of guaranteeing a moderate but sprightly level of consumer spending. It would help local and state governments by maintaining a generous level of sales tax revenue. And most important, the subsidy would occur after the money has been spent, thus guaranteeing the desired stimulative effect.

Now clearly, this plan would cost a lot of money. And the stuffier conservatives among us might consider the plan to be based on perverse incentives. But it would be easy to administer, available at some level to all the people except those who don?t need it, and it would stimulate the economy right out of its doldrums. And what the hell?it?s only money. Right?