http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0808/12237.html Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) on Friday announced an “Emergency Economic Plan” that would give families a stimulus check of $1,000 each, funded in part by what his presidential campaign calls “windfall profits from Big Oil.” Details are in this six-page policy paper. The first part of Obama’s plan is an emergency energy rebate ($500 to individual workers, $1,000 to families) as soon as this fall. “This rebate will be enough to offset the increased cost of gas for a working family over the next four months,” Obama said. “Or, if you live in a state where it gets very cold in the winter, it will be enough to cover the entire increase in your heating bills. Or you could use the rebate for any of your other bills or even to pay down debt Separately, Obama’s plan includes a $50 billion stimulus package that his campaign claims would save more than 1 million jobs. Half of the money would go to............ Sounds good from the outside, whats the backlash if there is one?
Windfall taxes are dumb ideas in general. But since Palin supported one in Alaska, I'm not sure how the GOP effectively attacks it.
What does a surplus have to do with it, though? It was a tax *increase*. It increased their surplus, and then they wrote a bigger check to all their citizens (they have that weird annual check that everyone gets). She did it for the same basic reasons - to help Alaskans cope with higher energy costs.
I actually like stimulus checks in general. The idea of tax cuts during downturns is to stimulate the economy and I think most people agree that philosophically it makes sense. The problem with them, though, is that you have to raise taxes down the line if you want to be fiscally responsible and that never happens. So a stimulus check is basically a one-year tax cut. It would probably be better to weight it a little based on taxable income or something like that, but I think they are the ideal temporary tax cut for stimulating an economy. Far better than a long-term tax cut that has huge consequences.
Did anyone happen to notice John McCain didn't offer any kind of alternative, let alone a better idea although he doesn't think its a good idea?
