Tax cuts

Good catch by Matthew Yglesias: Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), the key Republican players in the Senate’s health care tussle, are telling reporters that a health care bill that fails to get 75 to 80 votes will, in Enzi’s words, “fail because the American people will have no confidence in it.”
By [...]

Politico points readers to the economic analysis of Morgan Stanley’s Richard Berner:
In a research note that’s been making the rounds of economics blogs this week, Berner declares that “America’s long-awaited fiscal train wreck is now under way.”
By “train wreck,” he means out-of-control federal budget deficits that he’s sure will finally drag the economy under — [...]

It really is something how stories about meetings between Republican leaders and President Obama always generate leaks about how the president was mean to Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.). That’s the thrust of Glenn Thrush’s story today:
At the White House meeting — Cantor was the last of the Republican leaders to arrive — Obama … noted [...]

Beginning this week, workers’ weekly paychecks will jump by roughly $10 as the tax rebates in the stimulus bill take effect, The Associated Press reminds us today.

The Republican alternative budget, introduced this morning by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), is here. It has cost analyses and projections, unlike the widely panned “blueprint” released last week by House GOP leaders, and it’s unfortunate for Ryan that the previous botched press conference stole his thunder. But there are problems here, too, such as Ryan’s [...]

It’s been well-reported by now: The final stimulus package includes a $400 tax rebate for individuals and an $800 tax rebate for couples — down a bit from the $500/$1,000 rebate strategy envisioned by the Obama administration and included in both the House and Senate bills.
The curious thing is that, as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s [...]

Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) is the second Republican senator to propose an amendment that would scrap the entire stimulus and replace it with tax cuts. Via Marc Thiessen:
Senator John Thune today introduced an across-the-board middle class tax rebate amendment (S. AMDT #538) to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Senator Thune’s amendment would [...]

Much of the reason our economy is a mess is due to the housing bubble, a period in which too many homes were built — and too many people bought homes they couldn’t afford. Home prices continue their death spiral because a glut of homes remains on the market, leftovers from the bubble as the [...]

This amendment to the economic stimulus bill passed by the House and now being considered by the Senate, submitted by conservative icon-in-the-making Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), was breathtakingly bold. The gist, from Sen. DeMint’s Website:
o Permanently repeal the alternative minimum tax once and for all;
o Permanently keep the capital gains and dividends taxes at 15 [...]

The House Republican leadership has sent a letter to the White House asserting that it’s answered the call for new stimulus ideas with a tax cut plan — that’s been debunked by the person whose research it cites.