TP, you are a good detective. Thanks for the information
I summarized some of the main points. I wonder how Congress will react.
1. Ultimately, 90 percent or more of the Administration's stimulus plan
consists of tax cuts.
2. While being generous to large corporations, the assistance the plan would provide to the unemployed is surprisingly meager.
3. While all aid to the unemployed, as well as the tax cut the Administration is contemplating for low-and moderate-income workers, would be temporary — as they should be — the corporate tax cuts would be permanent.
4. The plan would accelerate income-tax reductions for higher-income Americans, which makes little sense as a stimulus measure.
5. Most economists concur that one of the plan's principal corporate tax cuts — partial expensing — would be more stimulative if it were temporary rather than permanent.
The Misleading Claim About the 50-50 Split
The Administration's plan calls for a $75 billion stimulus package, with $60 billion for tax cuts and $15 billion for programs for the unemployed. It turns out, however, that the $60 billion figure is not the true cost of the tax cut, which is likely to be more than twice that. The $60 billion is the cost of the tax cuts only in their first year or two (it is not clear which). All costs of the tax cuts after the initial year or two are ignored in the Administration's accounting. Over the long term, the proposal is more than 90 percent tax cuts and less than 10 percent aid to the unemployed.
The above are excerpts from a report entitled, The Administration's Stimulus Proposal: Is it a Sound and Balanced Package? by Robert Greenstein
cbpp.org |
