I realize common sense is way too much to ask for, but I like this approach.....
How to stimulate the economy
Thursday, January 17, 2002
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL BOARD
Gridlock over the economic stimulus package is highly likely when Congress returns to work next
week.
But there are ways to avoid that and actually do the country some good. However, it requires
statesmanship that so far largely has been lacking.
Despite the national trauma of Sept. 11 and the Afghanistan conflict, the two parties have reverted to
familiar posturing on domestic issues. Inflamed rhetoric and elbowing for political advantage have
eclipsed the need for responsible action.
Republicans accuse Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle of proposing a tax increase. Daschle
accuses President Bush of worsening the recession by cutting taxes. If this level of dialogue
continues, prospects of jump-starting the economy are bleak indeed.
Bush's ill-conceived stimulus proposal to repeal the corporate alternative minimum tax would have
cost the treasury $25.4 billion next year alone. It became the bitter symbol of the economic
divisions that rend both the Congress and the nation even though later the tax break was scaled back
to a mere $1.2 billion.
That proposal is manna from heaven for Democrats, who will work hard to hang this political
albatross around Bush's neck to good effect unless he abandons it.
And abandon it he should, and not just because the Democrats, especially now that the public
justifiably is aroused about the Enron scandal, will skewer him with it. And not just because it gets
in the way of agreement on a stimulus package.
Bush should abandon it because it's not a productive, sure-fire way to stimulate the economy. If
incentives are to be given to business to create jobs, give them with strings attached for future
behavior that has some reasonable assurance of creating those jobs and benefiting the nation. There
is nothing to be gained for politicians but trouble in being perceived by voters to be doling out
freewheeling no strings tax breaks to corporations under cover of national economic emergency.
There is no better way to stimulate the economy, put people to work and give taxpayers genuine,
long-term value for their money than to get going on this nation's massive neglected infrastructure
needs.
There are highways to be expanded and repaired, high-speed train tracks to be laid and railroad
crossings, airports and telecommunications infrastructure to be upgraded, to name just a few
examples.
This is where Republics and Democrats should turn their attention. This is where they should be
able to make common cause and get the country moving again. Some of this is work can be
"incentivized" with tax breaks to help the private sector and the nation move forward.
If tax money is, in effect, to be used to stimulate the economy, it needs to be done in a manner that
has a tangible payoff and truly represents an investment in the nation's future. |
