Democrats Working on New Anti-Growth Tax

The Hill/The Lid ^ | 8/30/09 | The Lid

[Shellybenoit]

Some experts say the U.S. economy is in the early stages of recovery but it will be a while before growth starts to bring down unemployment.

"My forecast envisions a return to positive but subdued gross domestic product growth over the medium term weighed down by significant adjustments to our economy," Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Dennis Lockhart said in prepared remarks.

"My forecast for a slow recovery implies a protracted period of high unemployment," Lockhart, a voting member of the Fed's policy-setting committee this year, told the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce in a luncheon speech.

Lockhart also said the recovery is very precarious and may not last. So how do you provide care and feeding to a recovery? Well if you listen to the Democrats, you tax it out of existence:

[jessduntno]

“Denis M. Hughes, a New York labor leader, was named Monday to chair the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s board of directors.”

That’s all folks...

[nascarnation]

On a more positive note, the National Association of Manufacturers is running some AWESOME anti Cap N Tax television commercials here in Indiana.

[jessduntno]

National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), is in too...the problem is that all of the businesses and job loss has left them with little or no power...

[Stultis]

Oddly, this blogger doesn't offer any analysis as to why this financial transaction tax (Tobin Tax) is a bad idea. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. I'm not convinced one way or the other after reading the article.

The only evidence that it is bad is that it is being proposed by Democrats and the AFL-CIO. That's pretty strong evidence, but not sufficient in itself due to the stopped clock principle.

This idea should certainly be popular with populist types, however, both left AND right (more circumstantial evidence to distrust it, IMHO) so could get bipartisan traction in the current environment.