Quote:
Originally Posted by Tex
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That isn't a stimulus, Tex. Once again, you are really struggling with the concept of a stimulus. A tax cut is about the least efficient way of stimulating the economy.
Look at these figures from Moody's for some help.
http://www.economy.com/mark-zandi/do...lan_012109.pdf
The numbers below represent the increase in the GDP for every dollar spent:
Tax cuts:$1.01
Food stamps: $1.73
Infrastructure spending: $1.59
Extending Unemployment Insurance Benefits: $1.63
General aid to state governments: $1.38
The LEAST stimulative action listed above is tax cuts. You spend a dollar, you get back basically a dollar. Not a great program, as far as efficiency goes. There may be other arguments for tax cuts, but economic stimulus isn't one of them (by a long shot). This is my biggest beef with the Senate version. They are eliminating spending that actually WILL stimulate the economy in favor of other actions that will have a far lesser impact on the economy. If this bill is a stimulus bill, it ought to actually be designed to accomplish that purpose (that was Tex's complaint on the first page of this thread- he just didn't understand the issue enough to realize he was arguing against tax cuts and for the items he listed as "pork").
Spending money keeps people employed. Employed people have money to spend. Poor people must spend money (they can't save), so the best stimulus involves money directed towards them. If that makes you feel bad, take it up with principles of economics, or spend money on infrastructure, or something OTHER THAN tax cuts.
I also wish more of the money in the bill was allocated for immediate spending, rather than so much being reserved for spending more than 18 months down the road. But, many of the long-term allocations are second phases to projects also being funded for immediate spending, and it doesn't make a lot of sense to fund 1/5 of a dam, for example, but leave the state to guess about whether it will ever see the remaining 4/5 or if the state will have to pay for it later (which they can't see fitting in their budget right now).