Too Much Stimulus in Democrats’ Stimulus Plan
The spiritual leader of the Church of Failed Conservative Policies preaches his worn-out sermons:
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Saturday that tax cuts, more than “slow-moving government programs,” were the best way to restart the economy.
Speaking in response to President Obama, who used his first weekly radio address in office as a call for action on his $825 billion recovery plan, Boehner said the GOP proposal would provide an average of $3,200 in tax relief for families. The plan would grant a tax credit for home buyers, “to help bring the housing market back to life,” it would end the “unfair taxation of unemployment benefits” and includes credits for small businesses, he added.
“Our plan is rooted in the philosophy that we cannot borrow and spend our way back to prosperity,” Boehner stated.
The minority leader said the package authored by congressional Democrats was “chock-full of government programs and projects,” noting a Congressional Budget Office report that projected less than half of the $355 billion that House Democrats would spend to create jobs through infrastructure programs and other efforts is likely to be used before the end of fiscal 2010.
Steve Benen rolls up his sleeves:
Let’s see, where to start. First, the CBO report Boehner is so fond of doesn’t really exist. Second, Boehner has supported nothing but “borrow and spend” policies since the moment he arrived in Congress, which helps explain his votes in support of budgets that produced the largest deficits in American history.
Third, if the administration and the congressional majority listened to Boehner and relied on weak-stimulus tax cuts to improve the economy, isn’t that necessarily a “borrow and spend” policy? And if tax cuts were the magic bullet, and Bush and Boehner cut taxes over the last eight years, shouldn’t the economy be in great shape? (Indeed, it’s this thinking that led the National Republican Congressional Committee to argue, as recently as yesterday, “Thanks to Republican economic policies, the U.S. economy is robust and job creation is strong.”)
And fourth, of course the Democratic plan is “chock-full of government programs and projects.” That’s the point.
Tags: economic stimulus plan, John Boehner
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