White House new pre-election package of TAX CUTS for bussiness and hiring

[bigdarryl]

It's a good package but you know the party of NO NO is going to dismiss this. Because it has to get through the stinking Senate and Congress and right now EVERYBODY is posturing for November 2nd http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/02/AR2010090204235.html?wpisrc=nl_natlalert

[daleanime]

1. If the idea is to....

simulate the economy, there are better ways to do it.

[bigdarryl]

2. SUCH AS

[daleanime]

3. ALMOST ANYTHING....

business tax cuts are the weakest stimulus you can find. Increase Food Stamps, extend unemployment, both give you a much better return for your investment. Repair, expand, build more schools. Stop firing experienced teacher just because new one are cheaper. Start a national education drive, sent more people to college. Start preparing the services all these new war time vets are going to need. Etc...

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

4. I totally agree with you....

all of the things you reference are effective ways to stimulate the economy.

But these tax cuts are for political purposes. There's an election coming up, and the Administration wants to provide political cover for Democrats in contested districts. The simple fact is that no kind of tax cut (or a jobs program) could be in place and making a measurable difference in unemployment between now and November.

Tax cuts for businesses usually have little economic impact -- even when those tax cuts are directed specifically at businesses who are creating jobs. I'm not going to hire and $80,000 per year engineer in response to a $5,000 tax cut unless I really need an $80,000 engineer.

But this recommendation (while it may have a small benefit) is about politics more than economics.

[niceypoo]

6. Have the last 30 years taught us anything about tax cuts as stimulus?

How about implementing DEMOCRATIC ideas for a change?

[FiveGoodMen]

13. "How about implementing DEMOCRATIC ideas for a change?"

Increasingly, it seems that Democratic ideas are just month-old repuke ideas.

The US really needs a new political party.

[hollowdweller]

16. Raise the minimum wage to $10 an hour till unemployment dips below 8%

People in the service and retail industries are grossly underpaid. Therefore the gov't has to implement all kinds of health insurance for their kids and earned income to supplement their meager wages. Then the rich get pissed because the gov't taxes them more when if they paid their damn workers a living wage the gov't wouldn't have to do it instead.

Anyway you can be damn sure if they raised the min wage to ten bucks you'd see a lot of money spent, it wouldn't cost the gov't anything and it might even encourage business to hire some people to get it rolled back.

[flpoljunkie]

5. Payroll tax holiday would stimulate. More spending, more incentive to hire more workers.

It would, no doubt, be welcomed by the American people.

[niceypoo]

7. "Tax holidays" are standard GOP policy

Amazing how after 30 years of tax cutting disaster (unwillingness to sacrifice for the sake of fiscal sanity), the Dems start preaching the same thing. God help us.

[flpoljunkie]

8. Yet Robert Reich is a big proponent of a payroll tax holiday.How about national infrastructure bank?

(I believe President Obama proposed a national infrastructure bank when he was campaigning for the presidency.)

Put the millionaires' tax money to good use
By Steven Pearlstein

Thursday, September 2, 2010

With the economy downshifting into first gear and their poll numbers sagging, the White House and Democratic congressional leaders are desperate for an economic and political game-changer as they head into the November elections. As it happens, there's one close at hand: the expiration of the "Bush" tax cuts at the end of the year.

In this instance, the politics of obstructionism appear to work in the Democrats' favor. If Republicans follow through on their threat to use Senate rules to block a vote on President Obama's proposal to extend tax cuts for households with incomes below $250,000, then the Bush tax cuts will automatically expire for everyone. At that point, Republicans will have a heap of explaining to do - not only about raising taxes and sacrificing the interests of the middle class to those of the rich but also about forgoing $700 billion in revenue over the next decade that could be used for deficit reduction. That, in a nutshell, is the Democratic strategy.

The only problem with that strategy is that there are some Democratic wusses who are so scared about the prospect of losing their seats by voting for a tax increase on the rich that they are pushing the White House and congressional leaders to put off the issue until after the election, during the expected lame-duck session. Otherwise, they warn, they may be forced to vote with Republicans for a tax-cut extension for everyone. That would put President Obama in the uncomfortable position of either vetoing the bill and triggering an automatic tax increase, or letting it become law and accepting a humiliating political defeat. That is what passes for the Republican strategy.

The economics here are pretty straightforward.

Given the fragile state of the economy, this is no time to be raising taxes on the middle class, as nearly every dollar taxed is nearly a dollar not spent buying goods and services. There is a good debate to be had over whether, over the longer term, some sort of tax hike on the middle class will be needed to bring the federal budget closer to balance. But with unemployment still hovering around 10 percent, it is too early to change the focus from debt-financed fiscal stimulus to deficit reduction.

more...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/02/AR2010090205017.html

[phleshdef]

9. A payroll tax holiday probably would be stimulative for a short time...

...but if it lasts for too long, employers decide that they don't have to pay people as much because those people, who are now taking more money home, were willing to work for less money taken home before. Payrolls start to drop and everyone is right back where they were.

I think if they did something like make the first 30,000 for individuals and the first 60,000 for married couples, federal income tax free, for just one year, there could be some merit in doing something like that. At most, its a one time trick that would inject money into average peoples' pockets long enough to boost economic activity. Its definately not gonna fix the big problem, which is the large companies aren't opening up the flood gates when they are perfectly able to do so.

[denimgirly]

10. Tax Cuts? Really? WTF!! Democrats becoming more Repubs each day.

tax cuts do the least amount of good for stimulation so why oh why is it always proposed...i know why for repubs but why even democrats? But then, the WH is more right than left.

[niceypoo]

11. Yep, budget busting, economy collapsing tax cuts

[butterfly77]

12. Noooooooooooooo!!!!!

They have enough damn tax cuts in the healthcare bill and every other damn bill that has come up and then they vote against the bill after they put everything in it...

[Better Today]

14. Mandatory bank lending to a quota of small businesses, gross income below 500K

or their interest rates go higher or some other uncomfortable measure. This quota, or minimum, would be based on the size of the bank. The bigger the bank the individual loans of 0-250k, maybe? Don't make it based on hiring tax incentives because that puts the cart before the horse. Give small and I mean SMALL businesses the confidence to get out there and spend, I think hiring will advance on its own. I know that for my business, if I could even get $25K I could do enough advertising to get a new angle to my business out there and what not. I'd buy a couple of back ups for some of my equipment so I'm always ready.

Now if all that works out, then I could start getting some customers, I could then see a reason to hire an intern from the local universities broadcast students to do some play by play voice overs for sports and a local band or musician to do musical overlays for other events. Hiring would happen naturally because as I spend on advertising to get the word out, while keeping pricing affordable, being able to pay myself for a month or two and clear up my late mortgage payments, .... Shit truth be told if I had more than what is bare minimum to keep the utilities and internet and websites and biz phone going, I'd hire someone right now just to get go around the event and explain what I'm doing there. It would be a god-send to me, and though an atheist, or perhaps because I'm an atheist, I don't use the term god-send lightly. But banks still aren't loaning to those of us that have been stagnant for two years or more, even if you (or in this case I) have added a whole new dimension to our services and business plan. And there's no personal credit for any unemployed for more than two years.

This is what small businesses need. Right now a tax break won't help me, because I'm making so little, I'm not paying any tax anyway.

[eridani]

15. This is so fucking stupid I can't believe it

Tax cuts don't stimualte jackshit! Businesses are ALREADY sitting on a trillion and a half dollars that they refuse to invest because they don't anticipate having any new customers. Businesses, particularly small ones, are dying for lack of customers, not taxes.