"Tax breaks for 95% of all people"

Snippet From Associated Press -- Q: What are the tax breaks in the bill? A: It includes Obama's signature "Making Work Pay" tax credit for 95 percent of workers, though negotiators agreed to trim the credit to $400 a year instead of $500 — or $800 for married couples, cut from Obama's original proposal of $1,000. It would begin showing up in most workers' paychecks in June as an extra $13 a week in take-home pay, falling to about $8 a week next January.

Wow I can buy an extra 2 value meals from McDonalds per week! Economic recovery, here I come!

Edited by dcengr, 12 February 2009 - 01:31 AM.

"Weekly Mortgage Applications Fall 25 Percent"

That $13 per week should help pay those mortgages.

Edited by Rogerdodger, 12 February 2009 - 01:41 AM.

Snippet From Associated Press --

Q: What are the tax breaks in the bill?

A: It includes Obama's signature "Making Work Pay" tax credit for 95 percent of workers, though negotiators agreed to trim the credit to $400 a year instead of $500 — or $800 for married couples, cut from Obama's original proposal of $1,000. It would begin showing up in most workers' paychecks in June as an extra $13 a week in take-home pay, falling to about $8 a week next January.

hell i got $1200 from bush twice. slipped me the last check just before our economy started collapsing .

ed rader

At least AP has stopped calling this (now reduced to $400) refundable tax credit a tax "cut," they're now calling it a tax "break." Maybe they finally figured out that no marginal tax rate has been changed. More accurate would be to call it welfare in most cases, that is, a hand-out via the feds from people who do pay income taxes to people who don't pay federal income taxes (which is almost half of all people who file returns.) The difference between this and traditional welfare is that it's the IRS handing out the money instead of some other agency. The problem is that there is no incentive effect. Bush tried the one-shot "rebate" thing in 2001. Didn't work. Bush tried it again in 2008. Didn't work. It won't work this time, either. Just as before, most (~80%) of it will be saved or used to pay down debt. People don't respond to one-shot or two-shot deals. Especially minor ones, which is what this is. People batten down the hatches when there's uncertainty. Even if the credit was 10 times as large, people still wouldn't commit to long-term plans because they don't know what Congress is going to do with it NEXT year or the year after that. Even a series of one-shot "breaks" is a pitiful substitute for known, stable tax RATES. Bush got it right in 2003 with marginal-rate cuts. Same thing that worked in the '20s for Coolidge, the '60s for Kennedy/Johnson and the '80s for Reagan. Bush screwed up twice in '08 by going with a one-shot useless hand-out and failing to try to make his '03 marginal-rate cuts permanent. Now, we have this silly little credit while we wait for the clock to wind down on the expiration of the '03 marginal-rate cuts next year. Capital flows to where it is treated best and unfortunately we ain't looking good on that front.

Or a bottle of Pike @ wine-searcher.com

[attachment=9757:Pikesville.jpg]

My bet is that liquor sales will show a higher increase than any other aspect of the economy.

BW


disclaimer: I don't drink!

"Weekly Mortgage Applications Fall 25 Percent"

That $13 per week should help pay those mortgages.

Lower mortgage rates are a far better stimulus. That new home buyer tax credit is nothing to sneeze at either. That WILL get spent, if my experience is any guide. Mark

disclaimer: I don't drink!

YET!!!



M

Or a bottle of Pike @ wine-searcher.com

[attachment=9757:Pikesville.jpg]

My bet is that liquor sales will show a higher increase than any other aspect of the economy.

BW


disclaimer: I don't drink!

"Weekly Mortgage Applications Fall 25 Percent"

That $13 per week should help pay those mortgages.

No doubt! Close 2nd repo biz.

Z

When will the dummies in politics learn that no one can spend thir way into prosperity by borrowing?
And unfortunately that eems to be the focus of the stimulus bill just passed. If we had a budget surplus,
by all means we should spend it. But the national debt is now over $11 TRILLION! Who will pay the interest
on that debt? Forget the principal, we can never pay it back. So the future generations are stuck with this
immoral spending.