Mother Jones Calls for a Tax Cut Stimulus

http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2010/06/mother-jones-calls-for-a-tax-cut-stimulus

Kevin Drum, writing in, of all places, Mother Jones:

Lefty economists might generally believe that increasing spending is a more efficient way of stimulating consumption than reducing taxes, but they'd almost certainly accept a big tax cut as an almost-as-good substitute. And tax cuts have two big advantages over spending. On the substantive side, they work faster. Spending takes time to work its way through the economy, but a tax cut (for example, a payroll tax holiday) boosts the economy almost immediately. And on the political side it's quite doable. Republicans would be persuadable because they love tax cuts and Democrats would be persuadable because it would help the economy. For Obama, then, it would be the best of all worlds: a fast stimulus that gets bipartisan support, something that boosts the economy while dampening the inevitable criticism he'd get for blowing up the deficit.

Link via David Leonhardt's column in today's New York Times. Mr. Leonhardt writes that an Obama call for a "big new round of tax cuts" could "put Republicans in a bind," presumably because Mr. Leonhardt thinks tax cuts conflict with deficit reduction.

It seems to me that a lot would depend on how any tax cut is structured. But if the stock market and job creation keep dragging, expect to see more of this meme. If Obama is smart, he'll do something like this between now and November.

by Editor  |  Jun 9, 2010 at 4:35 pm Related Topics:  Politics, President Obama, Press, Stimulus, Taxes receive the latest by email: subscribe to the free futureofcapitalism.com mailing list