Jan 18 2009
Any “Stimulus” Package That Includes Tax Cuts is Doomed to Failure
I’ve been saving my commentary on the Obama administration for when he actually gets in office. I’ve cringed at this cabinet choices. I’ve blanched at his lack of comment on the Gaza massacre.
I was outright pissed with his “wooing” of Republicans and I’m incensed at his insistence at keeping it “business as usual” where Wall Street and Big Business are concerned. This “stimulus” package reeks of bad ideas that wil do nothing to stop the economic slide we’re currently experiencing.
Also, cutting taxes on the federal level will do nothing to stop taxs from being raised at the state and local levels. And lets be real, there is no way that tax hike won’t happen. from Market Watch:
No, the real danger to your wallets comes much closer to home — from cash-strapped states and municipalities, which are in their worst shape fiscally in decades.
Though they may resist at first, governors and state legislatures could be forced to raise income taxes, sales taxes, state university tuitions, transit fees and whatever else will help pay the freight.
That may mute the impact of any federal stimulus package, because if one government takes while another gives, you’ll still have less money to spend at the mall.
The situation is dire. The recession and the housing crash have landed body blows to local governments, severely reducing tax revenues. The National Governors Association projects fiscal 2009 budget shortfalls may reach $60 billion, and fiscal 2010 deficits could top $80 billion.
Government, at any level, is not going to “cut” it’s way out of this. You can freeze workers pay, layoff thousands of people, cut medicaid, welfare and k-12 education and there still won’t be enough money to cover the severe shortfalls that states are experiencing. And what many folk don’t want to address is that it’s the Bush Tax Cuts that set in motion the near bankruptcy of many of these states that are struggling to begin with. How do you like them apples?
The repeal of the Estate Tax (known as the Death Tax in Bush speak) in particular, crippled states like California and Florida because it immeidatley cut off a large chunk of the revenue they counted on each year. It concentrated the money in the hands of the already wealthy and left the states having to cut basic services that the majority of the public relies on. Bu who cares right? Aslong as the wealthy have their private schools, personal security, private medical and gated communities, who cares if the rest of the population suffers.
People may not want to pay taxes, but people don’t want filthy, pot holed streets with no garbage service and riddled with crime because theres no money in the public till to pay for police. This is where we are headed if this financial slide continues unabetted. Tax cute are not the answer. Reform is. Real reform, not the band-aids that the Obama admnistration is currently offering.
If tax money went to fix the infrastructure and to pay for our police force, no one would complain. Instead, it is wasted as handouts to useless government agencies and federal welfare programs. Gripe about tax cuts and Republican policies all you want now, and then wait until Obama raises your taxes so much you have to get a second job or third job, just to get by.
Last I checked people had to get second and third jobs just to eat…and this is with the Bush tax cuts. Last I checked it was much of the Republican policies that are responsible for the mess we’re in now. Last I checked some of the most prosperous years this country has seen in recent years were the Clinton years (though I’m not a Clinton fan) and that had a lot to do with Bush senior and Clinton’s tax hikes after the disastrous policies of the Reagan administration.
Who was in the office during the 1987 stock market crash?
Who was in office during the crash of 2008?
Who controlled both houses of congress during the last administration?
And it’s Dem policies you’re worried about?
Okay.