Motley Moose – Archive

Since 2008 – Progress Through Politics

Republicans don't know how to stimulate the economy.

I’ve been watching these debates in the Senate for three days and I’m very disappointed by the way the Stimulus Bill is turning out.  As it stands now they have put 42% of the Bill as TAX CUTS…. and tax cuts don’t stimulate a thing!

Because of the 60 vote minimum needed to pass this thing in the Senate, Democrats have let Republicans re-insert the very things that caused the economy to dive into the pits over the last eight years… TAX CUTS!

This is a STIMULUS BILL! That means we have to SPEND MONEY that will go into the economy and be re-spent two or three times. It has to be money spent to make people BUY THINGS!

This is a STIMULUS BILL! That means we have to SPEND MONEY that will go into the economy and be re-spent two or three times. It has to be money spent to make people BUY THINGS!

If we give $100.00 to a poor family in food stamps that money will be spent and re-spent by the grocery store and equal $173.00 in economic activity.

If we give a banker a $100.00 tax cut, that money will stay in an investment account and will not be re-spent and will not generate other spending on other things which will guarantee that jobs exist to provide those things… well, you see what I mean.

SPENDING increases the economy. TAX CUTS keep the economy in chains.

President Obama told the Democratic Representatives meeting in Williamsburg that STIMULUS MEANS SPENDING. We all support him, don’t we?  We elected him over a competitor whose economic policies and the economic policies of his Party had dragged us into the worst situation since the 1930s. Yet we have listened to McCain steer the Republican side of the debate to TAX CUTS, TAX CUTS, TAX CUTS.

McCain and McConnell and Graham and all the other damned fool Republicans have been using their ability to prevent a 60 vote majority as a whip. Democrats better stand up to them. If not, the economy will continue to fail, more jobs will be lost, less and less will be manufactured or sold, less and less employment of workers will be necessary… it will just continue to spiral into the toilet.

Under The LobsterScope


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2 comments

  1. John Allen

    Tax cuts don’t stimulate spending. A lot of that money won’t be spent for years. In the first place, it will be spread out over a number of years. In the second, people are saving more now. It is likely that a large percent of it will go into emergency money or increased savings for uncertain economic times.

    Tax cuts don’t create jobs. Not in the way spending does. Increasing the number of counselors at family planning clinics creates jobs. That job pumps money into the economy. What doesn’t come back in taxes gets put to work right away. Enough of those dollars supports jobs at restaurants, dry cleaners, and other retailers. If some of the products they buy are made in the US then even more jobs are created.

    I truly don’t understand why they pretend this stuff is complicated.

    I’m glad the Republicans have started talking about taxes. It reminded me that the tax on investment bankers and hedge fund operators hasn’t been changed yet. No more of this raking in 100’s of millions or even billions of dollars and paying a lower tax rate than a schoolteacher. It’s bullshit, plain and simple.  

  2. creamer

      Some thoughts.

    -The individual tax credit was part of Obama’s campaign pledge to cut taxes on the middle class. It expires in 2010. (I believe the same time the Bush tax cuts expire.)

    -Some of the tax incentives deal with renewable energy.

    -Some of the tax incentives deal with education.

    While I agree that some of the business tax credits in regards to hiring are worthless, some of the language deals with how business apply losses to there taxes. I’m thinking that might be applicable in the coming years.

    Most economist agree that government spending will have a greater impact on creating jobs than individual tax cuts or credits to business in a recession. But particulary in regards to the individual tax cuts, after a year when middle class Americans saw there 401k’s lose 27% of there value and their homes a similar amount, the cuts might give some relief and do fulfill a campaign promise.

    Personaly I would like to see the Bush cuts dropped imediatley and the Obama cuts income ceiling lowered, we don’t have the vote’s or the national will at this time.

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