Obama's Big Tax Cut Proposal: Good Politics and Good Policy

Earth to morons in this thread (i.e. kerry b). Obama's original tax plan was based on the fact the US wouldn't be in a deep recession. Obama's "flip-flop" is not pandering for votes. His change in tax policy is a reflection that he is willing to do anything possible to get this country back on track. Unlike Bush, who just kept jamming a square peg into a round hole for his entire 8 years, Obama is fluid, and will govern based on current needs and expectations. That's what a real president does and is expected to do.

What were the CD rates when Volker was replaced by Greenspan? His work brought rewards after he broke the back of carter inflation.

We tried the liberal programs and found out some work, some don't work, some work a little, and all are expensive. We have been unwinding that fiasco since the 1980s with some success and much left to do. Then we tried the conservative approach, deregulating everything and found out that everything actually needs a reasonable amount of regulation. We also tried the big tax cuts for the rich thinking that the rich would create jobs and it didn't work very well. We are now unwinding that fiasco with much left to do. Every "great" political philosophy has been based on a flawed view of human nature. The common thread is that some wonderful class of people will produce a wonderful world if unchained from their oppression by some other bad class of people. Communism, Fascism, Liberalism, Conservatism, all based on some version of this common thread, and none of them worked. All seemed great until somebody actually tried them. We are beyond ideology now. What we need is a president and a congress that work like a mayor and a city council. Drop the ideology and the great new ideas. Just fix the damn streets. You Democrats and you Republicans are equally misguided.

You obviously don't even know what a Socialist is. We will be well served if Obama and company manage a health care reform (hopefully to a national program along the lines of Medicare) and limit the loss of life of our ill-used military. Hoping for more than that is giving the our political system branch too much credit.

Johnny Ike = Energizer Bunny! Which is ODD, considering when I used to drink (as an alcoholic) I never had that kind of energy... much less opinion about things except whether there was too much ice in the glass! Happy '09, Johnny!

Too much too soon stocks will revcover where the hell else is the money going to go?

US government economic policy Robbing Peter to pay Paul. I’m tired of getting petered.

What we need to do will never happen. We need to have balanced budget spending. Why? Look at the last 8 years, we kept raising spending so the debt could not be paid off and has consistently increased. Now it is exploding. As each new government handout of other people's money occurs, no one in the 'valued' media is reporting on the cumulative effect on the debt. Even if the economy gets back on an even keel in the next year or two, we will still have a bigger than ever public debt which would require more taxes to pay. Why not work now to reduce the future additional budens so that when the economy rebounds (and it always does) we can be stronger than ever?

You say "The top 10% of earners pays 75% of all income taxes". Why are these 10% filthy rich? Because they are so much more productive or have superior character? I doubt it. Most likely they have rigged the system in their favor. For example, company directors give each other obscene pay risers and golden parachutes in board meetings with no checks and balances. So screw these 10% and make them pay 95% of all our taxes.

The government wants you to make do with less expect the same from them. Tax cuts and less government spending will stimulate the economy in the long run..

If the messiah allows the Bush tax cuts to expire, and thus raising taxes on the people who pay most of the tax bill, any economic stimulus benefit will be lost. What he gives with one hand, he taketh away with the other. Ohhhh but he is so wonderful though,, i feel a tingle running up my leg

This type of article always makes me cringe. I want to give Obama a chance before I pass judgment on him, but the stimulus package that they keep pushing seems to get worse every single day. The idea of Keynesian economics has never worked in the past and it is highly doubtful it will work now. What troubles me the most is where this money is going to come from: China.

I did not vote for the man,but if I would have known he was going to give tax cuts, I and a flock of republicans would have voted for him. He is more republican Than John McCain !! Thank God for Brock Obama !!!

Tax cuts, stimulus checks, yada yada yada!! So, $60 extra in my paycheck for 4 months is what they are saying for a stimulus check??? Okay...the credit card companies are getting any stimulus I may get with their 1-day late $39 fees and 28% APRs. No....unless I get a $10,000 stimulus check there ain't nothing going to help me or my family.

"The common thread is that some wonderful class of people will produce a wonderful world if unchained from their oppression by some other bad class of people. Communism, Fascism,"----- You are kidding me. All political systems (communism, fascism etc) think in terms of master/slave. They don't trust freedom. They chain rather than unchain people. And its under the table socialism that has destroyed this country.Consider North Vs south Korea if you think ideology doesn't matter. Its not freedom that has been discredited, but rather your tyrannical systems that you obviously embraced.

Glad the Bush administration is about over - I do not trust it any more.

Great. Obama is still a few weeks away from even taking office, and we have already annointed him the greatest President ever. Even though I didn't vote for him, I truly hope he is the best President we've ever had, because that would mean great things for all of us in the U.S. and around the world. But before we rush out and fit him for the purple robe and crown, can we perhaps just wait a few years and let history write itself?

This plan is largely more of the same. These are demand side tax cuts designed to stimulate consumption spending, not improve the incentives to work and invest (with the exception of the accelerated depreciation for businesses). We tried this in 2001, it didn't work. We tried this last spring and it didn't work. And we have know this for years even since Friedman explained that people make spending decisions base don long term expectations of income. So a temporary "stimulus" check (or temporary reduced withholdings), does not increase spending by much. People just save it. This is what happened over the summer. The savings rate went up and spending stayed flat. But the private savings was offset by increased government debt. So here he is doing more of the same. It's to win political points; by handing out more money to voters, but it doesn’t do anything, or at most very little, for the macro economy.

Time magazine made Obama man of the year. I mean he hasn't done anything yet, just given pretty speeches. Wheres reality. Time, you are educated fools. Might as well have made my cat man of the year.

So how in the world is Obama proposing to cut taxes for people who pay $0 taxes? Here is the spin ... those people who pay $0 in federal taxes pay other types of taxes (ie, property taxes in the form of rent or sales tax). Therefore, those people pay taxes - albeit, no federal taxes. His proposal is nothing but added welfare in the guise of tax cuts. Absolutely true. The people who pay federal taxes will be funding the federal "stimulus" handouts for the 50% of Americans who don't pay federal taxes.