Behold, the might power of the proposed stimulus deal:
Q: What are some of the tax breaks in the bill?A: It includes Obama's signature "Making Work Pay" tax credit for 95 percent of workers, though negotiators agreed to trim the credit to $400 a year instead of $500 -- or $800 for married couples, cut from Obama's original proposal of $1,000. It would begin showing up in most workers' paychecks in June as an extra $13 a week in take-home pay, falling to about $8 a week next January.
There is also a $70 billion, one-year fix for the alternative minimum tax. The fix would save some 20 million mainly upper-middle-income taxpayers about $2,000 in taxes for 2009.
$13 a week?
Worthless.
Posted by Eric Earling at February 11, 2009 08:07 PM | Email Thistranslation: help subsidize/bail out mismanaged states (like Washington state-7B in the crapper) and extend to the some of the most unproductive members of society, a new contract to be voluntary "slaves of the state".
How could our future generations not feel "stimulated" by this bill?...oh yeah, they have to pay it off.
They lost this battle by accepting the premise that government is the answer. It is so frustrating!
Posted by: Lysander on February 11, 2009 09:03 PMInvestors are heading for the exits for obvious reasons. Like Kirchner and the Peronists in Argentina and Mugabe in Zimbabwe, O has chosen to raid the National Treasury and debase its credit to reward his followers. We have seen it before elsewhere. And while words do matter, there comes a time when words are not enough no matter how clever or duplicitous. In the real world, where the rubber meets the road, O has marked himself as a terribly tragic joke upon the United States, whose actions in a few weeks have produced incalculable damage to our nation's financial health. He has turned "a crisis into a catastrophe."
http://www.redenvelopeproject.org/
Posted by: Ragnar Danneskjold on February 11, 2009 09:12 PMNo new net growth....just more people spending the same amount. Where in this bill is there a stimulus for creating new jobs? None!! Sure some short term construction, but really is that new jobs? Nope.
Better if they just gave everyone $5000 and booked out Vegas for each person to rotate through.
Posted by: Dengle on February 11, 2009 09:27 PMI am surprised few have mentioned that the Porkulus Stimulus bill laid the groundwork for Universal Health Care, Medicaid & socialized medicine. That is the part that bothers me the most because it will be a continual drain on our budget and will only get worse until it becomes unsustainable. Hopefully, a future president will take that away through an executive order.
Posted by: KS on February 11, 2009 10:06 PMMost importantly, Obama's fate is now tied to an economic package that was shaped more by political considerations (a 40-year Democratic wish list) than economic needs. This legislation is, in the eyes of many, a monstrosity. And very soon now Barack Obama will have ownership of it, and all the fiscal and economic consequences that flow from it.
A pretty scathing (and well deserved) commentary even by conservative standards.
http://www.redenvelopeproject.org/
Posted by: Ragnar Danneskjold on February 11, 2009 11:19 PMIt would be a miracle because I can guarantee you 200% that the wording in the bill won't make sense to an accountant. This bill was passed too quickly.
At about this point, can't we rename all those lawyer jokes and change them to politicians?
Posted by: swatter on February 12, 2009 07:15 AMMakes up for the increase in the cigarette tax.
Many in my family have remained in contact with the "old family" in Europe's Scandianavian region, where workers regularly take a few months (or years) off to go "on the dole". With oppressive taxation confiscating most of their earnings, why not? It will soon be the same here, although a large portion of America's population is already on the "lifetime" dole program. Will there be room for all of us? Stay tuned.....
Posted by: Saltherring on February 12, 2009 07:45 AMTax the folks that made all the money off the Bush Crime Family, and have them pay for the "stimulus".
Hey, how about we just get the TAX CHEATS like Daschle, Geithner, and Rangel to actually PAY THEIR TAXES before we add new "mandatory contributions"!
HOPE AND CHANGE!
Posted by: Shanghai Dan on February 12, 2009 08:04 AMAccording to the IRS, the average refund for 2008 was $2429. Just by adjusting withholding to the correct level, the average tax payer would bring home an extra $46 a week.
Posted by: Vernon on February 12, 2009 08:32 AMWSJ seems to think Obama's tax cuts are bigger than those of the GOP patriarchs mentioned above.
could pack more punch in two years than either of President George W. Bush's tax cuts did in their first two years
LEARN TO READ! The WSJ specifically says in the first TWO years. Over the full Bush tax cuts, they were MUCH larger than the Obama $13/week. Four to five times higher, and longer term.
And are you now singing the praise of tax cuts? Finally seeing that the Republican approach - cutting taxes - is a good thing, and that we need to cut even further?
HOPE AND CHANGE!
Posted by: Shanghai Dan on February 12, 2009 01:47 PMRep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) asked the Congressional Budget Office to estimate the impact of permanently extending the 20 most popular provisions of the stimulus bill. What did the CBO find? As you can see from the table below, the true 10 year cost of the stimulus bill $2.527 trillion in in spending with another $744 billion cost in debt servicing. Total bill for the Generational Theft Act: $3.27 trillion...
Posted by: juandos on February 13, 2009 02:26 PM