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Politics : American Presidential Politics and foreign affairs -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TimF who wrote (30061)	12/4/2008 11:34:59 AM
From: Peter Dierks	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71588

targeted cuts and rebates give politicians more power (as they apply where the cuts and rebates take effect), while simple broad based cutting of rates for a permanent/indefinite amount of time reduces their power at the margin. Interesting observation. To practically apply this tough all programs would have to sunset. Thus the welfare lobby would have to come back every year to get their spending reauthorized. In practice spending and tax increases are never sunset only tax breaks and fiscal restraint. as you point out, targeted cuts and rebates give politicians more chance to buy votes. Targeted refundable credits, have the same effect as cash giveaways. They probably should be counted as spending (at least after the refunded amount exceeds the total income tax liability), but the politician gets to effectively spend and still call it a tax cut. Excellent points. So how does this effect PayGo?