I keep hearing from the conservatives that the stimulus didn't work at all. I also know that about 40% of the stimulus was tax cuts. Those are supposed to "stimulate" the economy, aren't they?
Obama cut taxes for 95% of working Americans. Like a lot of conservatives, you're long on ignorant rhetoric and short on facts. Educate yourself. Tax cut for 95 percent? The stimulus made it so http://politifact.com/truth-o-meter...obama/tax-cut-95-percent-stimulus-made-it-so/ President Barack Obama talked a lot about economic recovery during his State of the Union address on Jan. 27, 2010, including the benefits of the economic stimulus bill passed last year. The stimulus, formally known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, included tax cuts for many Americans, Obama said. "We cut taxes. We cut taxes for 95 percent of working families. We cut taxes for small businesses," Obama said. "We cut taxes for first-time homebuyers. We cut taxes for parents trying to care for their children. We cut taxes for 8 million Americans paying for college." Democrats applauded, while Republicans were silent for the most part. In one of the unscripted moments of the night, Obama looked at the Republican side of the room, smiled and said, "I thought I'd get some applause on that one." Here, we wanted to check Obama's statement that he cut taxes for 95 percent of working families. The key word in his statement is "working." Obama's claim is based on a tax cut intended to offset payroll taxes. Under the stimulus bill, single workers got $400, and working couples got $800. The Internal Revenue Service issued new guidelines to reduce withholdings for income tax, so many workers saw a small increase in their checks in April 2009. The tax cut was part of Obama's campaign promises. During the campaign, Obama said he wanted $500 for each worker and $1,000 for working couples. Since the final number was a bit less than he promised, we rated his promise a Compromise on our Obameter, where we rate Obama's campaign promises for fulfillment. During the campaign, the independent Tax Policy Center researched how Obama's tax proposals would affect workers. It concluded 94.3 percent of workers would receive a tax cut under Obama's plan based on the tax credit to offset payroll taxes. According to the analysis, the people who wouldn't get a tax cut are those who make more than $250,000 for couples or $200,000 for a single person. Obama said he intended to raise taxes on those high earners, a promise he reiterated during the State of the Union, and that revenue would offset the stimulus tax cut. Because the stimulus act did give that broad-based tax cut to workers, we rate Obama's statement True.
Cutting taxes creates more jobs than raising taxes. But the economy has several inputs with taxes and government spending being two of several factors. Raising taxes in good times deters job creation but when the overall economy has enough good things going on that the effect is mild. Saying the stimulus package was not big enough is the ultimate liberal way out when something doesn't work - just throw more money at it. Of course, none of this has anything to do with the original post.
You keep calling me ignorant while telling me nothing I did not already know. Now that's ignorant. Politifact, btw, is a horrible source run by the pathetic Poynter Institute, but that's a topic for another day.
Obama should just say OK to extending the cuts for everyone under 250K then if the republicans refuse go on a national address to the state with charts and graphs ala Perot and tell everyone the republicans are holding out for the rich and are risking YOUR taxes to go up.
You realize that you can do that, don't you? If you decrease the expenditures by more than you decrease the incoming taxes, then the deficit will be lowered by "both cutting spending AND lowering taxes." Well, technically the deficit will only be lowed by the cut in spending, but the simultaneous lowering of taxes would not preclude a reduction in the deficit. As for the collective action response to the original post, if every person who wants there to be higher taxes on someone donated to the government, that would be collective action. It would just be a "Coalition of the Willing" instead of the left trying to take money from the wealthy through the power of the gun. Alternatively, the Republicans could say that Obama and the Democrats are willing to raise taxes on everyone just so they can raise taxes on the wealthy, when the Republicans are trying to keep everyone's taxes at the lower rate. You see, the problem with the Democrats position is that Republicans are not pushing to raise YOUR taxes, it is the Democrats that are holding that up as the alternative to not getting their way.
I don't understand the point of the original post. It's a well-known fact Democrats care nothing about the debt and Republicans are our fiscal grown-ups (facts to the contrary notwithstanding). It seems the OP should have directed Conservatives to the Treasury site since they are the ones screaming about the debt. Besides, if Conservatives can give millions to shady groups promising to get to the bottom of Obama's citizenship or lack thereof, imagine what they could contribute to such a cause as honorable as reducing the national debt.
I'm down. <object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/dAsWdUo7r4c?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/dAsWdUo7r4c?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>
I don't really depend on much from a federal perspective. I guess someone could invade us but doesn't seem likely. Other than that, I could start a garden on my deck and buy imported food so I wouldn't have a need for the FDA. And I'm going to die anyway, so I guess i don't need the EPA. I think I can manage without the feds. I mean, so all the old people would die, and people probably would complain when their kids start dying from e coli and cholera infections but heck, pboil your freakin water already! And frankly, I'm tired of all these people with money. Hopefully we could get rid of state and local taxes and gov'ts too, then i can just buy some guns and do whatever i please.
I've generally found your posts thought provoking, but you're quick to belittle this discourse. Why isn't it feasible that people who believe taxes are too low for their sector to donate what they feel is their duty back to the government?
I sure do miss the days of that commie Ronald Regan, when the top marginal tax rates were 50% or higher for almost his entire presidency.
