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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tejek who wrote (129874)	12/19/2000 6:55:09 PM
From: Jim McMannis	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1579785

RE:"The typical tax cut usually is intended to stimulate the economy." Right there you lost the argument. It's up to the FED to stimulate the economy via the manipulation of rates. That's Keynesian economics. The FED does not pass tax law, the Congress does. If you think the Congress is capable of taking on the role of stimulating the economy then think again. They aren't that smart. Maybe they give a break here or there to promote an industry or retirement account but that's it. Basically that;s not their job. This is not to say that tax manipulation doesn't have the effect of slowing or accelerating the economy. RE:"Therefore I consider a typical tax cut to be one that effects/reaches as many people as possible" This is NOT what Gore and the DEMs wanted. They wanted cuts to single out groups they deemed worthy. RE:"Jim keeps referring to the ending of the gains tax as a tax cut. The gains tax effects the people who are own their own homes. That's roughly 60% of the households in this country:" THAT's HUGE TAX CUT. Also caused people to make a move. A tax cut for 60% of the households is a very big cut... Especially considering the pent up gain in a lot of peoples homes. This movement of maoney has served to spurt home prices in the last couple of years. Further punishing the have nots. Making first time home buyers more hopeless. Further destining poor people to have to rent, even at the point of taking government assistance to pay high rents. Relatively speaking, that cap gains cut was a gift to rich. Clinton signed it. A lot of people downsized, pocketed hudreds of thousands tax free. This was and is a lot of money being pumped into the economy. In order to counter this, AG has had to tighten for 19 months and up 'til recently the economy showed no signs of slowing. It's made it very hard to gauge for AG... Jim

To: tejek who wrote (129874)	12/20/2000 9:49:38 AM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1579785

The typical tax cut usually is intended to stimulate the economy. I would say that is one of three main reasons for tax cuts. The reason can be any combination of these three. 1 - A belief that government is taking too much money from people with the current tax rates. 2 - A desire to stimulate the economy. 3 - Last but not least (inf fact probably most) a belief that a tax cut is popular either with the electorate as a whole or with a politician's or group of politicians' base, or with swing voters. I find number 1 the most important reason to cut taxes, but most politicians would cut for number 3. Number 2 might be the most immediate economic effect depending on the size, nature, and timing of the cut. Tim