The Wall Street Journal is reporting
that Barack Obama and the Democrats are adding up to $300 billion
in tax cuts to their stimulus proposal, making the plan now 40
percent tax cuts. Some of these tax cuts, like speeding up the
ability of businesses to write off losses and adding investment
incentives, make sense. Others, like the human employment tax
credit, less so. The move is being billed as an effort to peel
off Republican votes.
Republicans should instead up the ante, using this latest
concession to push more tax cuts and less spending. Barack Obama
has already conceded that tax increases could hurt the economy,
at least under present conditions. He has conceded that tax cuts
can help. And he hasn't done much to make sure that his tax
proposals are realistically revenue-neutral. At the very least,
these points need to be remembered when Obama and the Democrats
move to raise taxes later.
