The Bush Speech On The Economy

by John Hawkins | January 7, 2003 5:54 pm

The Bush Speech On The Economy: GWB’s speech today on the economy was so chock full ‘o’ goodness that I thought I should point out some quotes of note from the speech[1]….

For those who claim this tax cut only helps the rich

“We also know that middle-income families need additional relief. So today, I’m asking Congress to speed up three other tax reductions promised in 2001, tax reductions that will help our middle-income families. Instead of slowly reducing the marriage penalty until 2009, we should do it now to help 35 million married couples.

Instead of waiting until 2008 to move more taxpayers from the 15 percent bracket to the lowest bracket of 10 percent, we should make that change now and help 2 million working Americans.

And instead of gradually raising the child tax credit from $600 to $1,000 per child by the year of 2010, for the benefit of 26 million families, we should raise it now.

These tax reductions will bring real and immediate benefits to middle-income Americans. Ninety-two million Americans will keep an average of $1,083 more of their own money.

A family of four with two earners and $39,000 in income will receive more than $1,100 in tax relief. Real money to help pay the bills and push the economy forward.”

Time to move Bush’s last tax cuts forward

“Americans today are paying about a third of their income in taxes. All of this puts pressure on family budget, and, therefore, clouds our economic future. Americans facing these struggles are due to receive additional tax relief in 2004 and again in 2006. Republicans and Democrats in Congress already approved these tax rate reductions, and the time to deliver the tax rate reductions is now when they can do the most good for the American businesses. (Applause) For the sake of economic vitality, I’m asking Congress to make all the tax rate reductions effective this year. Upon passage, I will order the Treasury Department to immediately adjust the amount of money withheld for income taxes so that Americans will keep more of their paychecks right away.”

Refuting the claim that Bush’s tax cut won’t stimulate the economy

Taken together these income tax cuts will put an additional $70 billion to work in the private economy over the next 18 months. And there’s no better way to help our economy grow than to leave more money in the hands of the men and women who earned it.”

Other proposals of significance from the speech

“As it is now, many investments are taxed not once, but twice. First, the IRS taxes the company who owns the profit, then it taxes the investors who received the profits as dividends. The result of this double taxation is that for all the profit a company earns, shareholders who receive dividends keep as little as 40 cents on the dollar. Double taxation is bad for our economy. Double taxation is wrong. Double taxation falls especially hard on retired people.

About half of all dividend income goes to America’s seniors. And they often rely on those checks for a steady source of income in their retirement.

It’s fair to tax the company’s profits. It’s not fair to double- tax, by taxing the shareholder on the same profits.

So today, for the good of our senior citizens and to support capital formation across the land, I am asking the United States Congress to abolish the double taxation of dividends.”

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“Currently, tax law permits small firms to write off as expenses up to $25,000 worth of equipment; buy computers or machinery that they need. I’m asking the Congress to raise that limit to $75,000 and index that number for inflation.

This change, together with the faster rate reductions, will benefit more than 23 million small-business owners. My view is this economy can thrive only if our small businesses thrive, and we will provide them every incentive to grow and create more jobs.”

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“Under this new program, Americans who face the greatest difficulties in finding work will receive up to $3,000 to use in their job search. They will have great flexibility in how they use that money. A person with a reemployment account will be able to decide whether to use the funds for job training or child care or transportation or even to cover the cost of relocating to another city for a new job.

If a job is attained quickly, within 13 weeks, the worker will be able to keep the cash balance as a reemployment bonus.

As we see new economic growth we will need well-trained workers to fill new jobs, so I’m going to ask the Congress to provide $3.6 billion to the states to pay for the reemployment accounts, enough money to help more than a million unemployed men and women across America.”

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Personally, I like everything GWB came up with here except perhaps the extra unemployment benefits. Otherwise, this is a crackerjack proposal and I’d love to see it rocket through Congress. I can see the House passing this fairly quickly but the Democrats in the Senate will put up more of a fight….

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