Political Bloviation

A compromise passes:

Congress Votes for a Stimulus of $168 Billion - New York Times
The plan will provide tax rebates of up to $600 for individuals and up to $1,200 for couples filing jointly, with an additional payment for families of $300 a child, and a minimum payment of $300 for individuals who pay less than that in income taxes.

Payments will be reduced for individuals with adjusted gross incomes above $75,000 and couples with incomes above $150,000, with the wealthiest taxpayers receiving nothing. The Treasury Department said checks would be distributed beginning in early May, after the crush of the tax filing season.

The rebates and the business incentives, including a doubling to $250,000 from $125,000 in the amount of expenses businesses can immediately write off, are intended to jolt the slowing economy with new spending.

The package will cost roughly $168 billion over two years compared with $161 billion for the original House plan. About $152 billion would be injected into the economy this year.

Many economists say government action is needed to forestall or shorten a recession, but some questioned whether the plan would work quickly enough because rebate checks would not go out for 12 more weeks.

It remains to be seen if this will be effective. After all that’s been dumped into the war on terror you have to wonder why is this even necessary. They must have really screwed-up the economy so that the $3 billion in spending for the war wasn’t enough to prevent the downturn we see looming ahead. The provisions that would help the economy the quickest, cheapest and with the least uncertainty according to the CBO, food stamps increases and and an extension of unemployment benefits are still missing.

The Crooks & Liars take on this here.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS