Bush Makes Case for Extending Tax Cuts

AP via YAHOO ^ | Wed May 3 | MARTIN CRUTSINGER

[gwb43_2004]

WASHINGTON - President Bush on Wednesday appealed for quick passage of $70 billion in tax cuts, saying lower taxes on dividends and profits from investment selloffs have helped revive the economy.

In addition to extending those cuts by two years, the proposal would keep 15 million taxpayers from getting hit this year with a tax aimed at the wealthy.

The president said raising taxes would harm the economy, especially at a time of rising gasoline prices.

"A tax increase wold be disastrous for business, disastrous for families and disastrous for this economy," Bush told a Washington audience.

[gwb43_2004]

[RHINO369]

Why can't they make them permanent? Or is this some kind of way to blackmail conservatives into staying in the party.

[ARCADIA]

It doesn't matter what they do with the tax cut. As long as they continue to spend we will continue to pay. This is just so much smoke, mirrors, and BS.

[MinorityRepublican]

Democrats won't allow permanent tax cuts.

[spikeytx86]

Too many wobbly rino's who say they wont back it.

[spikeytx86]

You would have to be insane or lacked even the foggiest concept of basic macroeconomics. Even a liberal democrat who wets himself over Keynes would know that in a period of turmoil in the economy when consumers have fewer dollars due to inflation or mass unemployment or in this case high energy prices, you do not take more dollars out of consumers pockets by raising taxes. Keynes would probably be saying cut taxes further and he would tell the government to spend spend spend! (I giggle when talking heads refer to the president as a "Supply Sider").

[DustyMoment]

Increasingly, Bush's lack of leadership and inability to get a conservative agenda through Congress makes him look as weak as he is.

To date, on the "pro" list of accomplishments for his administration, we have:
1) 2 SC justices
2) tax cuts
3) GWOT

On the "Con" side of the list . . . . . . . . let's just say that it took 2 Crayons to complete.

[Alia]

Your primer on Econ101 is exactly right.

[Coop]

It doesn't matter what they do with the tax cut.

Speak for yourself. I want more of MY money. Tax cuts are a good thing, no matter how much some of you whine to the contrary.

[ClaireSolt]

They are always fiddling with tax policy. I think it would be more appealing to repackage this and match it to current situation. I agree bush has used Keynesian deficit spending to revive the WORLD economy. Good job!

[Coop]

Your pro list needs a lot of work. But you already know that, don't you?

[stopem]

Why not have better interest rates on savings?

[GeorgefromGeorgia]

I think you are right about the tax cuts. There are too many RINOS like McCain and Snowe that won't support making the cuts permanent. RATS can filibuster permanent tax cuts, but can't filibuster budgets. That is why the tax cuts were not permanent in the beginning.

The deficit news is actually getting better. The deficit is not so large that we could not balance it easily with some modest spending cuts.


"An April Shower of Tax Revenue
Soaring Treasury receipts signal a far smaller than expected U.S. budget deficit for fiscal year 2006

By Michael Englund
Business Week
Updated: 8:00 p.m. ET May 3, 2006


All the daily data for receipt of tax payments by the U.S. Treasury for the key month of April are now available, and the results speak for themselves: By our estimates at Action Economics, April receipts soared at a 15% year-over-year rate. This is well in excess of the 2% year-over-year growth in outlays, which were depressed by a "pull ahead" of some spending into March because of calendar effects.

The April data signal that the fiscal 2006 U.S. budget deficit is on track to reach the vicinity of our $270 billion forecast, despite official and market forecasts that are all nearly $50 billion to $150 billion higher. A shortfall of this magnitude in the U.S. budget deficit from official forecasts by the Congressional Budget Office [CBO] happens with remarkable consistency in healthy "middle years" of business expansions, and it's happening again.

For those who don't pay U.S. taxes, April is when Americans "settle up" for the previous year, and so receipt data in this volatile month removes most of the uncertainty for each year's budget-deficit forecast. We still don't have the official monthly figures, but the daily data imply that we saw an April Treasury surplus that could reach $100 billion, and that we more conservatively peg at $95 billion.

With only five more months to go in the fiscal year, it will now be hard to reach the CBO's $337 billion figure, and all but impossible to reach the $423 billion gap projected by the Office of Management and Budget [OMB]. At this point, if our April projection is correct, the CBO would need to see the U.S. economy hit a brick wall to reach its fiscal 2006 and fiscal 2007 receipt estimates.

NORMAL RANGE.

As we frequently note, the U.S. budget deficit is not nearly as large as is perceived by most critics, and the fiscal 2006 figures will make that point particularly clear. Last year's $319 billion budget deficit was 2.6% of GDP, which is fairly normal relative to gyrations in the U.S. budget deficit over the last five decades, and which is small by current international standards.

In fiscal 2006, the gap will fall to 2.1%, and we expect a 1.6% gap next year. Note also that state and local governments in the U.S. run surpluses, so the "combined" budget deficit needed to make international comparisons is even smaller than the above percentages by a few tenths.

The CBO may not fully revise downward the official $337 billion deficit estimate until we get closer to the final fiscal-year month of September, as it seldom shifts its forecast with the April data as much as we think reasonable. The OMB is usually even slower to respond, and will likely stick with its oversized $423 billion forecast through spring.

Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.

© 2006 MSNBC.com"

[EQAndyBuzz]

"On the "Con" side of the list . . . . . . . . let's just say that it took 2 Crayons to complete."

I don't know. Outside of Harriet Miers which I still believe was a ploy to get the base fired up and the guest worker programm which I still believe was a ploy to get the base fired up, everything else seems to be obstructionism from the left.

[groovejedi]

gimme back my money!

[Cindy_Cin]

Are members of the GCA as big a bunch of non stop whiners as those on the left?
Solutions and plans are refreshing, conversely, another
"Bush Sucks" group of complainers are annoying to me. Its easy to complain & criticize, the Left in America have turned it into a National Pass time~ Are the far right about to join them?

[Coop]

Those people are disgruntled conservatives. They would not be members of the GCA.

[Pylot]

MMMM, merikins are upset over illegals......lets let em keep some of their money for another coupla years....yeah..that will make em happy.

President Bush is trying to set up his brother Jeb for election to El Presidente. Not the 08 election, but the 2012 election.

[Coop]

Well, that's certainly one of the most asanine comments of the day.

[Liberty Valance]

bttt