Economists show support for Obama job-growth plan

[highplainsdem]

Source: AP

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A tentative thumbs-up.

That was the assessment Thursday night from economists, who offered mainly positive reviews of President Barack Obama's $447 billion plan to stimulate job creation.

Some predicted it would put hundreds of thousands of people back to work next year, mainly because a Social Security tax cut for workers would be deepened and extended to small businesses.

"Payroll tax cuts are very powerful," said Allen Sinai, chief economist of Decision Economics. "They provide a boost to direct income and, in turn, spending, which is important to growth."

-snip-

Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_OBAMA_JOBS_ECONOMISTS_REACT

[No Elephants]

1. We haven't seen any details yet, have we?

[McCamy Taylor]

9. I heard a lot of details, some of them straight out of the New Deal.

[Badsam]

12. If the Gov gave my equal share of the 447 billion, I know I would spend it

there by helping the economy. In fact, anytime the Gov wants to help the economy- give me money and I will spend it.

[vets74]

15. Enough to invoke Richard Koo's approval

Koo said that if a government deleverages -- minimize generating debt -- at the same time as the private sector in a recession then the result will be devastating.

On CNBC:

"...When the entire private sector is de-leveraging, you need the government to be in there taking these un-borrowed funds in the private sector and put it back into the income stream. And that's basically what Japan was doing for the last 15 years.

And from the Japanese perspective, we see the whole world going through the same de-leveraging process after the bursting of the bubble and then you see governments all trying to de-leverage at the same time. And that is not a very good prospect given what we went through."

Japan of course posted five quarters of negative growth and saw its budget deficit rise at the time. Koo warned Euro Zone countries against repeating Japan's mistakes.

Governments must fill in with fiscal stimulus until the private sector repairs its balance sheets and moves forward. This job's stimulus from Obama is a step in the right direction.

[daleanime]

2. Tax cuts are the least....

stimulative thing we could do and are far more damaging to our nation in the long term, especially this Social Security 'tax' cut.:banghead:

[creeksneakers2]

3. The tax cuts will keep consumer spending from falling

Slow consumer spending is what is hurting us now.

[Badsam]

13. Tax cuts don't put money in my pockets to spend,

it just means i owe the Gov less. I need to get paid more and with better opportunities, the gov can cut all taxes down to zero but if we aren't making money what does it matter- there no money to spend.

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Jackpine Radical]

5. I think the payroll tax cut is absolutely on the wrong track.

It will end up defunding SS & MC, to the profound detriment of future retirees.

The people who are making the most should be contributing the most to the country that provides them with the environment they need to amass their fortunes.

[on point]

6. More useless supply side nonsense from economists responsible for our economic problems

Tax cuts DO NOT WORK!

It is religion on the right, but empirical evidence doesn't support the continued delusional assertions that tax cuts are good. Even a simple thought experiment would show this to be a fantasy.

I mean where are all the jobs form the Bush tax cuts??

[McCamy Taylor]

8. Tax cuts for the middle and lower classes do work. They increase spending which increases jobs.

Tax cuts for the wealthy do not work, because they put the extra cash in the bank with all their other extra cash.

[on point]

11. Agreed, but this is small part of the plan. Tax cuts for corps are a bigger part.

[customerserviceguy]

16. And it's the well off who get the most from this

The minimum wage worker only gets a couple of hundred bucks, the person making near, at or above the wage base gets thousands of dollars. And if that well-paid "worker" is the owner of his/her small business, the business gets a tax break, too!

It further undermines support for Social Security in this country, either by telling younger workers that our society isn't going to fund SS, or by borrowing from the Chinese to support the FICA tax cuts.

I simply do not see how anyone who supports the existence of Social Security could possibly support this sort of tax cut.

[meegbear]

7. Translation ... Republicans denounce Obama's job-growth plan

[GeorgeGist]

10. Bad link?

[dpbrown]

14. So the only way to create jobs is to defund Social Security?

What kind of plan is that?

[customerserviceguy]

17. It's the kind of plan that only a Repuke could love

It will marginalize Social Security for the rest of time. Social Security needs more funds, not less.