The chairman of the Senate Finance Committee yesterday unveiled a rival plan to stimulate the economy, offering a $500 check to virtually every American — including low-income seniors and rich financiers — in a direct challenge to the bipartisan deal reached last week by President Bush and House leaders.

The new proposal includes rebates for seniors and payroll taxpayers, extended unemployment insurance, tax relief for struggling businesses, and may also include heating assistance for the poor, food’stamp money, more business tax incentives and road-resurfacing funds, among other items.

In his SOTU speech last night, Bush said “the temptation will be to load up the bill” and that “this would delay it or derail it, and neither option is acceptable.”

For all the power they wield, for their over-bloated sense of self worth, these people are doing nothing more than playing Monopoly with our livelihoods.