Counterproposal: Obama Mails Every Taxpayer a $1,000 Check Instead of Tax Cuts for the Wealthy - FDL

Counterproposal: Obama Mails Every Taxpayer a $1,000 Check Instead of Tax Cuts for the Wealthy
By: Jon Walker - FDL
Friday November 12, 2010 9:37 pm

<snip>

I have a counter-proposal to the Republican demand that we must temporarily extend all the Bush tax cuts. They want to include tax cuts for those making over one million dollars a year, for the next two years, despite the fact that it will add hundreds of billions to the deficit I suggest President Obama demand that instead of using the money to extend tax cuts for the rich, that it be used to mail every taxpayer a $1,000 check.

How President Obama and the Democrats have handled the fight over the extension of the Bush tax cuts has been a horrible political and policy disaster. In the end, they are likely to fully capitulate to Republican demands and only “temporarily” extend all the the Bush tax cuts. Not only will it be a policy failure to fully give into to this deficit-exploding plan with almost no stimulative effect, but Republicans will also be able to spin it as a victory and take all the credit for extending tax cuts to the middle class.

Ideally Democrats should have dealt with this months ago, but according to David Dayen it is likely Obama never had the Democratic votes in the House for his preferred policy.

Now that the election is over Obama has a weaker hand, but he can still at least pull out a real political win against the Republicans with my counter proposal of a $1,000 check to every tax payer.

Obama should say that he agrees with the basic premise of the Republican argument for temporarily extending all tax cuts — during an economic downturn you shouldn’t be taking money out of the system to pay down the deficit. But he should point out that giving hundreds of billions of dollars to those already incredibly well off will do very little to help jump start the economy. That is why he is offering a “compromise”: instead of extend the tax cuts for the wealthy for the next two years, he will take that roughly $140 billion and use it to mail every taxpayer in the country a $1,000 special tax rebate check.

Have Obama make this announcement on national TV. Have him actually pull out the $1,000 check that “he will mail you in the next three weeks unless the Republican insist on playing games with the middle class.”

<snip>

More: http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2010/11/12/counterproposal-obama-mails-every-taxpayer-a-1000-check-instead-of-tax-cuts-for-the-wealthy/

Note: How I came up with the figure of a $1,000 check every taxpayer: According to the CBO extending the tax cuts for the rich for ten years would cost roughly $700 billion (PDF), which is about $140 billion for years. According to the IRS there are 138 million tax filers. $140 billion divide by $138 million tax filers is roughly $1,000. The size of the checks can easily be adjust based on CBO score of the cost and defining who would qualify for receiving the check.

Hmm...

:shrug:

:kick:

:D

:evilgrin:

:hi:

That kind of money sounds like a good salary (well, almost) for workers who lost their jobs to outsourcing.



The CEO owes YOU.
Image cropped from Wikipedia by your humble hare (Public Domain)

Now *that* would be serious stimulus. Out from under my student loans and the first thing I would buy is a windmill :D Also a used car to tide me over till all electric is ready to roll.

He got walloped by the crook Nixon.

Still, it might be worth revisiting.

:hi:

Why can't it be every ADULT?

Plenty of people aren't making enough money to file tax returns these days. Why should they be left out of this stimulus?

Usable against bank debt.
The entire country's credit scores would improve, banks would get a huge influx of capital, and the net result would be loosening of credit. As opposed to just giving the banks the money without it helping your personal standing.

in the U.S. Give each and every American citizen one millions dollars. That's a total of $310,693,000. Chump change to some of our elite top 1%. Everyone could pay off debts, buy a house, car, clothes, appliances, electronics, college, etc. The demands for these things would bring unemployment down. When you look at how much money the government lets big business and the wealthy slide on their taxes, that's not really a huge amount of money. But it would be a huge amount to the people who receive it and it would certainly make a huge difference when it comes to supply and demand.

A million dollars to 300 million people would cost over $300 trillion, not million.

Not that I wouldn't mind a million bucks! :hi:

Never been good at math. I'd make a great politician. lol

nt

Why not?

If Obama proposed this the Republicans would scream bloody murder.

And Democrats that opposed the Bush checks would support this one.

:crazy:

you might as well embrace it... The main issue I'd have against it would be for the 47% of U.S. households who pay no federal income tax, not only are they not paying for the government they're voting for, but they'd be getting paid, which I view as dangerous. It also would suggest hypocrisy for those voicing concern about deficits. In any event, sub-par growth is the primary driver of deficits, which has been the main argument of those not wanting to see anyone get a tax hike, especially as government spending has risen from $3.2 trillion in 2000 to $6.4 trillion in 2010, much of that amount servicing the debt.

at all. Inasmuch as they don't pay federal income tax, are you going to send them a check as well?

Note I typed 'federal income tax'. I am aware that they do pay other payroll taxes such as medicare, in addition to property tax if they own property, sales tax if they buy anything, and so on.

By the FDL is always wrong principle, clearly we should end the middle class tax cuts and give them all to the wealthy instead.

I understand that. But if something's true enough, another source is likely to publish it.

sorry, that ain't going to do much