Bush Unveils $674 Billion Economic Plan

Reuters via Yahoo ^ | 1/7/03

[B-bone]

Bush Unveils $674 Billion Economic Plan

CHICAGO (Reuters) - President Bush (news - web sites) on Tuesday proposed a $674 billion boost for a struggling U.S. economy with measures including an end to taxes that shareholders pay on dividends -- a move denounced by Democrats as a politically motivated windfall for the rich.

"I will ask members of both parties to work with me to secure our economic future. We cannot be satisfied until every part of our economy is healthy and vigorous," Bush said in a speech to the Economic Club of Chicago.

The "growth and jobs" package aims to kick-start the U.S. economy by encouraging consumer spending, promoting investment that will create jobs and helping the unemployed.

It will include the acceleration of across-the-board rate cuts, immediate tax relief for married couples and families with children, and bigger incentives for small businesses to invest in new equipment.

In all the White House says it will give 92 million taxpayers an average tax cut of $1,083 this year. Up to 35 million people who get income from dividends could benefit.

[MindyW]

Not us!! We made $9,400 dollars off a $600 investment last year! We're eating steak!

Wanna let me in on your secret?

[GretchenEE]

It sounds like you have a foundational series of objections to this president not being you. Can't help you there.

[Dog Gone]

But how do you get your money OUT of a 401(k)? That's the issue. Do you withdraw it as income, or is somebody handing you actual stock certificates (when the time comes that you are eligibile.)

I do not believe there is any way to make a withdrawal from a 401(k) in anything other than cash, nor do I expect that requirement to change.

However, depending on how long you've been working, you may have other sums in your account that are treated as post-tax dollars, and those will receive a different tax treatment (they won't be taxed) when you withdraw them. It's not a big deal to lump any future dividend payments within those accounts into that same "tax-free" status.

I haven't seen the text of the President's speech, but apparently he didn't mention this aspect at all. In any event, these are the kinds of details that would necessarily be addressed in the legislation to be introduced.

[ohioWfan]

In addition to having patience...... which we all need.....you have to believe that he is a decent and honest human being.

One of the three of us doesn't seem to believe that.

[EBUCK]

The bill eventually comes due.

Yup. And when that happens we have a collapse, putting people out of work, putting rats in Congress, and those tax cuts are negated. Almost like it was planned that way. To keep us in a constant state of flux for some reason.

EBUCK

[Carolinamom]

Looked at your Yahoo link and noticed that said garment fits hips up to 65". Hillary will have to order hers especially made!

[freeper12]

>>Economic increase leads to tax revenue. The more people make, the more they spend, the more money taxed.
Government gets it back from the economic increase anyway.
[Pork, on the other hand, has no return (except votes)]
Reagan knew that. He put money back into the private sector, allowing it to build. The increase not only gave us the best economy ever, but a surplus to boot!


And with all that tax revenue the govt got during the boom of the 1990's...how much was used to pay down the national debt?

Answer: just a few token payments.

If we can't reduce the national debt during huge boom times like the 90's, what hope is there of ever reducing it?

I see a national debt of 4,000,000,000,000 in 1992...and after the huge increase in govt revenues, we now have a govt debt of 6,400,000,000,000.

A better than 50% increase in the national debt in a period where revenues grew like crazy...now why do you suppose that is?

Answer: because if you don't get spending under control, it makes no difference how much money you make.

If you make a million bucks, and spend $1,000,500, you are no better off than someone who makes $1000 bucks and spends $1500.

[concerned about politics]

Wanna let me in on your secret?

Well, I guess I could say to find those companies who have no dept. That means everything they have is profit. Buy long.
Sell the roller coasters drowning in dept short. They're going to go down. They always do.
Don't sell short with American companies, because that's just plain COMMUNIST!

[tom paine 2]

Since dividends will now be tax free I am going to convert all my 401 K stocks to dividend paying stocks and start withdrawing the dividends. How does that sound?

[freeper12]

>>It sounds like you have a foundational series of objections to this president not being you. Can't help you there.


Guess when you can't argue the facts, you throw insults...good strategy.

[GretchenEE]

If you consider that an insult, my apologies. I didn't think or transmit it as one. It's not my style. As to facts, Bush's record stands for itself and you don't like it. He doesn't need me to defend him.

[ImphClinton]

And will continue to be taxed under Bush's plan.

That is right the very rich (top 1%) will stop paying taxes on dividends but you will continue to pay the tax when you withdraw the money from your retirement accounts.

That is why the dividend tax repeal needs to happen at the corporate level. That way everyone will get more and higher dividends. The Corporations will be able to give out these dividends tax free and will thus be encouraged to do so. I do not see how the dividend cut at the shareholder level encourages corporations to increase dividends at least directly.

[ohioWfan]

.....you have a foundational series of objections to this president not being you.

That wasn't an insult, Gretchen, under any definition of the word. It was an observation, based on written evidence.

freeper......you don't admit to having fundamental objections to the President because he doesn't agree with you?

[anoldafvet]

Did you see Fox and Friends on Monday? They had some idiot Democrap B*tch who was screaming about how Bush and the Republicans shoved the first round of tax cuts down our throats in 2000, and now they were going to do it again. Apparently Edwards agrees with this line of thinking.

[Dog Gone]

And will continue to be taxed under Bush's plan.

I don't know that to be the case, and I have trouble believing that you know that as a fact, either.

[GretchenEE]

A tax cut now, without corresponding spending cuts, is no different than going out any running up your credit card to buy something you can't afford. The bill eventually comes due.

I wish there were some way to show you this isn't so. Tax cuts are not a debtor's gimme, they are a plan to stimulate the economy, get more money into the people's and businesses' hands and therefore, make the country stronger. When that happens, spending cuts can find room -- in the minds of Congress members, the American people, and the economy, to be implemented.

[Rockitz]

Sorry to be a wet blanket, but I believe President Bush is making a huge mistake in implying that the president actually has that much influence on the economy. The economy runs in cycles that have very little to do with who is in the office of the president at the time. The time delay between policy and impact on the economy is often years. The massive debt that has been amassed by the citizens of this country is going to come due with devastating consequences and the president, federal reserve, etc. have little hope of circumventing the coming crash. Well, unfortunately the Clinton bubble has not fully deflated. Can you say Hoover?

Remember how as the economy was booming through the 90s, conservatives were saying that this was in spite of Clinton. Now, why do we act differently when a Republican is in the White House? How about some consistency on the right?

[GretchenEE]

[Edwards is] a smoke and mirror creation of the Democrat Propaganda Machine. No wonder CNN interviews him so much.

And he is smoother than some of the raspy dems who croak and screech their putrescence -- it's harder to detect his scummy agenda, which makes him an easier pill to swallow for TV interviewers and unthinking audiences who like somewhat pretty faces with a big smile. All of which renders him the more dangerous.

[krodriguesdc]

I wish you much luck - God Bless!

[princess leah]

All you have to do is LOOK at how much we pay out in taxes for Groceries, Gasoline, Automobiles, Books, Clothes, etc and KNOW that what Bush says is true: The more people keep in their own pockets the more will come in REVENUE taxes alone! PERIOD! I wasn't a math major but I get it...