Posted on 01/12/2009 4:53:14 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Last week President-elect Barack Obama was asked to respond to critics who say that his stimulus plan won’t do enough to help the economy. Mr. Obama answered that he wants to hear ideas about “how to spend money efficiently and effectively to jump-start the economy.”
O.K., I’ll bite — although as I’ll explain shortly, the “jump-start” metaphor is part of the problem.
First, Mr. Obama should scrap his proposal for $150 billion in business tax cuts, which would do little to help the economy. Ideally he’d scrap the proposed $150 billion payroll tax cut as well, though I’m aware that it was a campaign promise.
Money not squandered on ineffective tax cuts could be used to provide further relief to Americans in distress — enhanced unemployment benefits, expanded Medicaid and more. And why not get an early start on the insurance subsidies — probably running at $100 billion or more per year — that will be essential if we’re going to achieve universal health care?
Mainly, though, Mr. Obama needs to make his plan bigger. To see why, consider a new report from his own economic team.
SNIP SNIP SNIP
SNIP SNIP SNIP
So my advice to the Obama team is to scrap the business tax cuts, and, more important, to deal with the threat of doing too little by doing more. And the way to do more is to stop talking about jump-starts and look more broadly at the possibilities for government investment.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I should not have wasted my time reading past the by-line.
Laffer Curve Denier Alert!
PK is such an ass-clown: Exactly ZERO jobs will be created by giving people unemployment benefits and health care.
History spplies abundant empirical data that show how "enhanced unemployment benefits" serve to enhance the duration of unemployment.
But then when dealing with leftwing morons, facts never matter as much as The Cause.
Krugman has laid out here a plan to completely distroy the US economy, which is his hope.
raving lunatic bump for later..........
IF YOU’RE SO SMART—WHY IS THE GREY HAG DYING?
Another lying liberal Jew. What’s new? He knows what he is writing is a lie and will not in any way help the economy.
Paul Krugman is married to the daughter of one of the Founders of General Properties which is about to go belly up. Wonder how the inlaws feel about Paul’s liberal economic polices now?
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