Tax Rebates Looking Less Likely For Stimulus Bill

Source: Dow Jones

By Martin Vaughan, Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- Taxpayers who have learned to equate "economic stimulus" with "a check in the mail" had better not count on rebate checks this time around.

Lawmakers are beginning discussions of an economic recovery legislation they might consider as early as next month. Unlike stimulus legislation passed in the spring, the centerpiece of which was tax rebates of as much as $600 per individual, the focus this time is on infrastructure spending, aid to states, and help for the poor through food stamps and jobless benefits.

Democratic congressional leaders have not ruled out that the package could include some type of tax relief. But according to interviews with lawmakers and staff, Democrats don't appear inclined to undertake another broad-based rebate program.

"I think there is more interest in targeted measures," said Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., a member of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee. "In the first rebate, there was concern that we weren't getting as much economic impact as we should have gotten."

"Economists are quite in agreement that food stamps, unemployment insurance, and adjusting the paychecks of the bottom half of American workers would have a far greater effect," Blumenauer said in an interview with Dow Jones Newswires.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in a Friday interview with the Associated Press, said that if Congress does pass tax rebates, it likely won't do so before year's end.

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I'm sure money will find its way into all sorts of nefarious organizations with this. At least with the tax credits, it went directly to us.

his numbers drop.
Will McSameasbush suspend his campaign to rush to DC & argue on behalf of the "average working family"???

fuck no.

...of that $700 billon bailout that Paulson and Bush are secretly throwing in their direction

this is in addition to that.. maybe a pail out.

by Pelosi and Reid