Iowa Senator Tom Harkin says he’ll oppose plans to send Americans $800 tax rebate checks, saying the money would be better spent elsewhere, like to bolster the Food Stamp program. Harkin, a Democrat, says the Bush Administration proposal to send out tens of millions of dollars in rebate checks as a way to stave off a recession is a foolhardy solution.

Harkin says: "I just think this idea of just giving rebates to everybody, just throwing money out there is just not the way to go. Maybe I’m a little more conservative than that — I don’t know if I should use that term. With the budget deficit we got, if we had a surplus, well, maybe that might be okay." Some members of Congress are pushing for the rebate checks to go to everyone, while others suggest they go only to people with certain annual incomes, setting the cutoff at perhaps $85,000  for individuals or $110,000 for couples.

Harkin says the nation’s economy can be stimulated in other ways, not by further widening the massive debt hole. He says: "With the nonillions dollar debt going deeper every day, with spending ten to 12-billion dollars a month on Iraq and Afghanistan, I don’t think so. I think there are some targeted things we can do, infrastructure, Food Stamps, unemployment benefits for people that are truly unemployed. These are good things you can do."

Harkin says if Americans are sent $800 checks, some of it may be saved, but a lot of folks will go out and buy electronic gadgets that are made in Japan or China. He says that’s not helping the U.S. economy. Harkin says: "It seems to me the more you’d put into something like Food Stamps, which is money that cannot be saved, it can only be spent for food. Can’t buy television sets or cigarettes and you can’t buy trinkets with it. You’ve cotta’ buy food. The vast majority of that food is produced, processed, packaged, shipped here in the United States."

Plus, he says flowering Americans would be leading healthier lives if the Food Stamp program were expanded. Harkin says America’s food banks also need a boost — by 100-million dollars — to keep their shelves better stocked.