GOP stimulus package, seems everyone (Greenspan now) is totally against it except Bush, et al. Once again - unilateral Bush!
Best I've heard about is it will kick in about election time, then be negative for eternity - hmmmmmmmmmmm!
Bush takes a domestic moment
By Daniel Schorr
WASHINGTON – There is some irony in the trouble that President Bush is having selling his budget and tax-cut proposals to the Republican majorities in Congress that he helped to create.
After consulting with legislators at a weekend retreat in West Virginia, the president and his Cabinet are using the time before the Iraq situation reaches its expected climax in late February to fan out around the country for town-hall meetings soliciting support for the administration's economic-growth package (no longer called "stimulus package").
Mr. Bush's standing in the opinion polls as domestic leader lags behind his standing as wartime leader. A significant minority of Republicans join the Democrats in expressing reservations about eliminating dividend taxes while projecting a $300 billion deficit. And that is without even figuring in the cost of a war.
Medicare reform, which the president promised in his State of the Union address, remains more a slogan than a program. Little is heard any more of the idea of requiring Medicare beneficiaries to shift to managed care plans as a condition for receiving government-subsidized prescription-drug benefits.
In emphasizing job growth as the primary weapon against poverty, Bush has effectively shredded what President Reagan called the Federal "safety net" for the poor. The administration's proposal would tighten work requirements for welfare recipients without providing working mothers with adequate child care.
The preschool Head Start program, one of the most successful ventures of the Johnson "war on poverty," would be turned over to the states, without adequate funding. The school lunch and breakfast programs for low-income children would be cut back. Funds for public housing would be cut. Tucked away in the budget documents is a provision that would turn the $50 monthly maximum rent for tenants in government-subsidized housing into a minimum rental. A new class of people may be created called "the working homeless."
The president's budget loads a heavy burden on the money-strapped states. Sixteen states have already announced tax increases for the coming year.
At those town-hall meetings, you will not hear much from the president and his lieutenants about the shifting of the tax burden to the states. The emphasis is on the theme set at the West Virginia retreat. The president spoke of "a domestic agenda that is positive and strong and hopeful and optimistic."
His purpose, Bush said, is to put more money into the "pockets of the entrepreneurs of America," which would be "good for those who are looking for work." But the deficit grows, the economy lags, and the poor get poorer.
Is the veneer wearing thin - Good god but he wants this war to hide behind - wants it bad!!!!!!!!!
BillW, Here's some thinking on Bush's stimulus package. 1) Just because Bush proposes anything to congress, that's not necessarily what gets approved. 2) Many are talking of modifying the dividend income exemption with limits, say $1,000 or $5,000. 3) There are still many complex questions that must be answered before any legislation on dividend income exemption is approved. A) to be excludable, it must be dividends from earnings, B) Since dividends are paid from "previous" years earnings, how will they determine exactly how much they can distribute? C) Real estate and securities dividends are not taxed at the corporate level, so are they tax exempt too? D) How does this scenario increase investment in stocks, if dividends are paid on previous' years earnings? Just because they made earnings last year does not guarantee earnings for future years. E) How about dividends paid by foreign corporations? F) The greatest beneficiaries of this benefit will be people with annual earnings of $1 million or more. They will not "stimulate" our economy by their tax savings, because they will reinvest it. For the long term, that's a good thing, but that can't be called "stimulus package" by any meaning of those words.
The other big parts of his package are excelleration and making permanent his prior richman's boondoggle!
