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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Thomas A Watson who wrote (335937)	1/2/2003 12:42:05 AM
From: steve dietrich	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769670

Looks like even the Rank and file republicans are starting to wise up: Poll says many would forgo tax cuts AP survey finds reluctance to put U.S. in deeper debt By Barbara Kollmeyer, CBS MarketWatch Last Update: 12:03 AM ET Jan. 2, 2003 LOS ANGELES (CBS.MW) -- A survey shows that most Americans believe the government should hold off on tax cuts to prevent the country from going deeper into debt. Free! Sign up here to receive our After the Bell Report e-newsletter! INFORMATION FOR DJIA: Create an alert for DJIA Add DJIA to my portfolio More cool charts on DJIA Discuss DJIA NEWS FOR DJIA Bay Street exits 2002 with a whimper Wall Street ends down for third straight year Gold prices mark 23% rise for the year More news for DJIA Quote & News Charts Financials Analysts Options SEC Filings Some 64 percent of those polled said forgoing tax cuts is a good idea, while 28 percent said they favored additional stimulus to give the economy a boost, according to a poll of 1,008 people conducted for the AP by ICR/International Communications Research of Media, Penn. The AP noted that within the poll, more than half of those suggesting a hold on tax cuts were Republicans. The White House is currently putting together a tax cut package that could total $300 billion. Features include lower taxes on shareholders' dividends, speeding up 2001 tax cuts for all but America's wealthiest and new depreciation breaks to businesses. "I can see why people would say don't accelerate tax cuts because for most people it doesn't make much of a difference. They're only moving a couple of points over next couple of years," said Martin Nissenbaum, national director of personal income tax planning at Ernst & Young in New York. Where to help "The biggest change is for people in the highest bracket, which is going down 4 percent, from 38.6 percent to 37.6 percent in 2004 and 35 percent in 2006," he said. The next bracket, the 35 percent bracket, is only coming down 2 percent, to 34 percent, then 33 percent, he noted. "People in higher brackets have a higher percentage cut, as that gets applied to more income. So if you're looking at it from a mercenary perspective, for people in middle income and lower brackets, it's not a big deal to them," Nissenbaum said. "The economy is not where it used to be. Reasonable minds differ over whether it stimulates the economy or just makes things worse. It also makes a lot of sense, instead of accelerating all the rates, put a moratorium on Social Security taxes," he said. One fix that might help is to bring the 10 percent tax, on the first $12,000 for married people filing jointly and $6,000 for single people, down to 5 percent. "It's almost equivalent to rebate checks which came back in 2001. That would provide stimulus to the economy pretty quickly," he said. Optimism and war fears Nearly half of those polled, 44 percent, said they expect their family's financial situation will be improved a year from now. A year ago, in the same poll, only a third felt that way. The same amount, however, expect their financial situation at status quo. Recent financial news has made only 44 percent change their spending habits, while 51 percent said they've made no alterations to spending. War is looming heavily on the minds of some Americans. Thirty-three percent think a war with Iraq will increase chances of a terrorist attack by a great deal, while 32 percent say it'll up chances by a fair amount and another 32 percent, don't see a war having much effect. For 59 percent of those polled, al-Qaida/Osama bin Laden is the biggest threat to the U.S., following by Iraq/Saddam Hussein at 29 percent. Further looking at the breakdown, Republicans were more optimistic than Democrats, and young adults were much more optimistic than older people.