I’m going to go on record saying in this one case I’m kinda with the Republicans, at least tacitly. They appear to be opposing Obama’s stimulus package largely because it’s Obama’s (as opposed to before when they lauded Bush’s samedamnthing), but I just plain don’t buy into repeated tax breaks at a time like this. Regardless, it’s trucking along just fine.
The package includes a temporary refundable tax credit for workers, up to $500 per individual and $1,000 per couple. It also includes tax incentives for renewable energy and allows builders and other companies to write off current losses against five previous tax years. Currently businesses can write off losses against two previous years.
The bill also provides money to help the unemployed keep health insurance coverage.
I realize President Obama is telling us that this is just a quick fix and that in the long haul we have to go after the symptoms, but these amounts just seem immense. We’re at a time when people aren’t sure how we’re going to fund the other packages, not to mention the dual bailouts, and now we’re going to pile on another?
Granted, this is a bit of a conundrum in that we have to get money flowing which only works if people have money in their pockets, but we can’t pay for propping up businesses without more tax revenue. I’m just going to watch this one from the sideline before I make a final decision.
Actually, you’d still be in disagreement with the ‘tards. They want more and more tax breaks inserted, even though we’ve got proof positive from the last 8 years that tax breaks for the wealthy do absolutely nothing for economic growth.
I do not understand why Obama doesn’t get himself a few Ross Perot pie charts and just explain that to Americans. How long do we have to endure that stupid, stupid wingtard myth?
I’m okay with some tax cuts, but this is extreme.
I’m with you JollyRoger – pie charts ftw. Americans aren’t stupid, we will go along with things that make sense – we just sometimes need to have the sensible things explained to us (Democrats have been woefully bad at explaining anything, despite generally being on the right side of the issues. I trust Obama can fix this by setting a good example).
From the Center on Budget & Policy Priorities (which has a great pie chart (showing that tax cuts are the largest factor in reemergence of large budget deficits):
http://www.cbpp.org/9-27-06tax.htm
“For example, the recent Treasury analysis found that if the President’s tax cuts were made permanent and the costs of the tax cuts were paid for by reductions in programs, economic growth would increase by a few hundredths of one percentage point annually. Meanwhile, studies by economists at the Joint Committee on Taxation, the Congressional Budget Office, the Brookings Institution, and elsewhere have found that if tax cuts are not paid for with spending reductions, they are likely to have modest negative effects on the economy over time, because of the negative effects of the increased deficits. Tax-cut proponents often claim that the economy will be badly damaged if the tax cuts are not extended; these claims are without foundation.”