Okay, it's damn sure not perfect, but I have to admit that, on balance, I like it. Especially two components of it. Make that three.
1. Payroll tax cuts to low income to middle income workers, which would apply even to workers with no end of the year tax liability. More money immediately in your pocket, as opposed to waiting till the end of the year refund. As much as 500 dollars per individual and up to 1000 dollars per couple. Not a lot when stretched out over the course of the year by way of weekly paycheck (about ten dollars per week per individual, twenty dollars per week per couple), but still helps, provided it doesn't lessen tax refunds. If it did, now that would bite.
2. Tax cuts to businesses to cover losses of the previous five years (it is currently limited to last two years losses). What does Obama think he is-a Republican or something?
Finally, my favorite, and it's about damn time-
3. Tax cuts to businesses to keep jobs in America, and/or avoiding further lay-offs. One of the few good Democratic proposals of recent years, and in fact practically the only good idea John Kerry ever had. It is sorely needed. Now, if we can only get the damn thing passed.
Of course, not everything in the proposed legislation is that good, but, you got to take-well, you know.
Okay, you can shoot me now.
2 comments:
I won't shoot you for liking the artist's conception of what this is supposed to look like. I would, however, remind you of the undeniable facts.
The final product will ALWAYS bear little resemblance to what is planned. It will have tons of riders, tacked on laws, appropriations and detritus. With Reid and Pelosi running Congress what gets delivered for signature will probably contain nothing that Obama asked for and hold enough pork to make certain that every Muslim alive today would go to hell.
Obama is going to TALK a great game. But he has a record of ...
Incomplete. I can think of only two things that testify to his ability to follow through. They started school in that ritzy private school in D.C. this week. That's two things out of a lifetime. He didn't complete his first term as Senator. He voted "present" so often in his state office that it is a running joke (much like his campaign).
You should at least be honest enough with yourself to realize the truth of what I'm saying.
This is Democratic bait and switch.
I guess I'm just hoping for the best, Hyunchback. People in Obama's inner circle have been claiming they aren't going to allow any pork, but of course that's easier said than done.
Frankly, I was never opposed to earmarks anyway. For all of McCain's harping on that through his campaign, what he always failed to point out was that earmarks never amounted to more than roughly one half of one percent of the entire federal budget. While some of them were of course odious, a good many of them were beneficial to the people in the states and regions in which they were applied, and when you get right down to it, this was the people getting back a portion of their taxes anyway,albeit in a different form and in a disproportionate way in some cases.
In my opinion, McCain lost the election in part over devoting time and energy over such issues. He looked like somebody trying to swat horseflies with a battering ram.
Not everything in this bill is that great either, I was just pointing out the three things that are good in my opinion. Supposedly, forty percent of the bills overall projected cost will be paid for by the tax cuts somehow, through a hoped for economic stimulus effect. They are hoping that the three million jobs either created or saved will come mainly from the private sector. We'll just have to wait and see.
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