Bush tax rebate: economic stimulus or vote buying for repubs?

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/01/18/bush.economy.ap/index.html

Bush planned to lay out his position Friday, but he wasn't expected to go into specifics. Press secretary Dana Perino said Bush would demand that any package be effective, simple and temporary -- mirroring calls by Democratic lawmakers for a "timely, targeted and temporary" stimulus measure.

Taxpayers could receive rebates of up to $800 for individuals and $1,600 for married couples under a White House plan. Although lawmakers were considering smaller rebate checks and more money for food stamp recipients and the unemployed, Bush told congressional leaders that he favors income tax rebates for people and tax breaks for business investment.
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Bush has been silent about the upcoming election, but could this be his plan to help out the "cut your taxes" Republicans?

If Bush sends a check for $800 per person (or $1600 per family), will the repukes, like Mitt and Fred, be able to run with the mantra of "Republicans can and will cut your taxes"?

It will take a few months for the "stimulus" plan to be reached and executed. That could mean that we'd see checks sent out to America by the Summer- a few months before the general election.

Is this an attempt to buy votes for the republicans at the cost of the failing economy (which is in recession)?

Most households will use the money to pay overdue bills.

as I'm sure has been suggested now and before now, $800 would be a tasty donation to the Dem candidate if they do decide to give us some spending money... ;)

coming or if you owe, you owe that amount more. I want the option of refusing this bu$hit.

what you're saying and I s'pose I wasn't clear that I understood that. Really my comment had more to do with helping out the Dem candidate than anything else.

I'm not sure how that story got started, but somebody was confused. Last time the rebate check were an early tax cut. A 10% tax rate was created for the first $6,000 of taxable income. The rate used to be 15%. $6,000 x 5% is $300 which was sent to anybody with more than $6,000 in taxable income. People got those checks in May. The next year, when they filed their taxes, the tax rate on the first $6,000 in taxable income was still 15% so they paid $900 in taxes on that income. But so the fu$% what?

That $900 was not the same as paying the rebate back. That's what the taxes would have been without a tax cut. In order to pay the $300 back, people would have to pay $300 more, or $1200 on the first $6,000 of TI. Their net taxes on the $6,000 of TI were still $600. The $900 they paid in February 2002 minus the $300 they got in May 2001.

True, they could have avoided mailing the checks and simply created the 10% bracket, like they did in 2003. The difference is that people would have gotten their $300 tax cut in February 2002 (or later depending on when they file their taxes) instead of May 2001. It becomes a stimulus when 60 million tax payers get money 9 months earlier than they otherwise would have. They can spend or invest it in May instead of waiting 9 months for the tiny baby tax cut to be delivered.

This isn't about the American people, or the Republicans running for President.

It's about what George Bush cares about most...his legacy and himself.

Look at this fool...sauntering around the Middle East, claiming to foster peace. Ummmm...yeah....riiiiiight.

Now, he's going to save the economy, after years of kow towing to the banks, Wall Street and other corporations
who were allowed to do whatever the hell they wanted---so they could make billions--at the expense of the
American people. If he cared at all, he wouldn't have let this happen. He would have stopped it.

Banks shouldn't have been allowed to make "sub-prime" loans to people who didn't qualify. It was preferable to
allow financial institutions to roll those loans, package them and sell them around the globe---and make untold
millions. Where was Bush savior when the damage was happening? Again, he was kow towing to the corporations.

They knew damn well that this would be the outcome. Don't let anyone else tell you otherwise.

So now, he throws crumbs at the slaves---and wants us to believe that this is "economic stimulus".

Fuck you, George Bush! However...I will take my money back. I feel that you owe me at least 10 billion
in emotional damages for enduring YOU during the past 7 years, 2 months and 2 weeks.

I consider this a down payment.

Most people will use it to pay down debt to try to catch up on bills....

This won't be spent on tvs or vacations....

So, it is a way to give the banks money while keeping up superficial appearances of helping the American citizens.

And, of course, it will be borrowed money, so they will be charging us into more debt without any way to pay for it.

making tax breaks for the wealthy permanent

Sad to say, the Democratic Congress is going to be 'partners' with Bush on this ... they want to get re-elected.

You can hear all of them (Congress members from both parties) trumpeting how they voted to give you a chunk of change to help you out.

And, sadly, I don't think this is going to work because with inflation a real problem, having a $150 billion printing press run is going to only make the dollar worth even less and accelerate price increases.

only increase our debt, be paid with more borrowed money, reduce our credit ratings further, and drive up inflation and the devaluation of the dollar.

It's an attempt to beef up stock prices and profits for business and does not address the root causes of the recession.... low wages, unemployment, and rising costs.

$800 is a fair amount of money. With $1600, I could buy that car advertised in the paper. But who is gonna get that much money? In order to pay that much in taxes, a family of four would need to have an income greater than $53,000.

I am sure that is not very much money to some people, but here's the rest of the country:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United_States

28% of American households make less than $25,000 a year. Most of them would be getting zip, nada, zilch, nothing from the Bush plan because they do not have $800 in tax liability, much less $1600.

another 26.65% of households making $25 - 50,000. Remember from above, that if they have two kids, their tax liability is less than $1600.

That's 54% of households making less than $50,000 a year. Those people will get less than $1600 and often less than $800.

However, the 6% of households who make more than $150,000? They will get the full $1600. It's a bullsh*t plan, and I expect CBPP and CTJ to verify that.

he knows the timing is right because this will hurt the taxpayers in 2009, right at the beginning of the new Democrat president and congress term. So guess who will get the blame.

although the story got started that it was last time.

where the hell is this money gonna be borrowed from? Jeebusonajetski, wtf is wrong with these people. $800.00/1600.00 is gonna be a piss in the wind when the shit really hits the fan.