Quote:
Originally Posted by d-ray657
The concept of the stimulus as spending only has become such an integral part of the right's narrative, that they consistently ignore any suggestion that it included tax cuts, but decry it as an example of wasteful spending. I am certainly glad that we did not have to live through an economy that had not included the stimulus package.
Regards,
D-Ray
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I'm not ignoring the tax cut part -- but the economy did. There were 2 components of tax cuts.
1) The theft of FICA income from Soc Sec at a time when the program was in jeopardy. Now normally a tax cut doesn't CREATE new spending -- but this one did in 2010 as Soc Sec went negative SIX YEARS ahead of schedule. $40Bill came OUT of the Treasury to cover the SS checks.
In these days of global economy -- all handing out $20/month to every worker will do is bring more containers in Long Beach harbor AND bankrupt SS at the same time. It's a happy Robin Hood ending since INCOME TAX paying folks are now getting robbed a 2nd time to cover the money that's NOT in the Trust Fund because of a previous larceny
2) THe deferred fix to the Alt Min Tax. This like so many Congressional managed programs had gone off the rails and nobody wanted to fix it until the opportunity arose in the "stimulus".. THAT was a 10 year expenditure and by DEFINITION not much of a stimulus since the bulk of that is yet to be spent.
Is that too pessimistic?? Wish I could be the optimist. But the problems were GONNA see are worse than a recovery without $700Bill wasted.