Economists: Extend Bush tax cuts

This CNN article looks at the debate on wether the tax cuts put in place by Bush should be renewed, cancelled, or edited. The current administration seems to be favoring continuing the cuts for the working class but ending them for the highest level. Economists disagree with this viewpoint By extending the cuts economists believe that this will greatly help the economy. As our recent classes have shown the economy is number one on the minds of many Americans and many feel it should be our number one or only priority. Recovery is going slower than expected and while our government desperately needs to pull in more money, many believe that the average American simply can't afford a hike. Congress has some time before they must decide, but this topic will be closely watched by the media and the people.

Article: http://money.cnn.com/2010/09/19/news/economy/what_to_do_economists_survey/index.htm?hpt=T2

-Kayla Carson

Is Obama deliberately destroying the economy?

Do you think Obama is deliberately destroying the economy? That has been a question raised recently, however we now believe that Obama and his administration are just naive. They have tried to create many new policies they believe will help the economy, however they are only hurting us more because they are created so quickly and with little thought behind the plan. We were not able to track the $787 billion stimulus cash, the Cash-for-Clunkers program entrapped more than it helped, and the employment rate more than doubled while Obama was in office. Not to say all of these were Obama's mistakes but he certainly hasn't shown any promises. He tried to put the government in charge of health care, auto loans, student loans, etc., and ends up asking for tax help to cover all of these expenses! This clearly shows his lack of experience in economics. Obama needs to do something quick in order to gain back some popularity before the mid term elections come around in the next couple of months!

http://www.intellectualconservative.com/2010/09/10/the-jury-is-in-obama-is-deliberately-destroying-the-economy/

Will We Finally Get a Stimulus?

I am going to start this post with adding some credibility to the source of this article. For the past year I have been using a site called The Daily Beast to get a bulk of my current event information. It is an extremely diverse blog started by Tina Brown, previously editor of The New Yorker. The blog is composed of articles written by staff writers, and articles gather from various credible news sources. I encourage you to take a look.

With recent numbers from August showing the number of private payrolls increase by 67,000, President Obama is hopeful that new policies he seeks in Ohio and Wisconsin will be successful. The first of these policies includes tax breaks. The President has plans to implement $12 billion in tax breaks, and $30 billion supplied to people who need aid to “free up” credit. The hope is that small businesses will begin to hire more rapidly. However, it is not all breaks, the bill includes a policy to terminate tax breaks for households earning more than $250,000 annually. This is a bill that was rejected last month, and is now on the table for a second time.

In addition, Obama plans to ask Congress to extend research-and-development tax credit and to increase new infrastructure spending. He believes that it is one of the most “efficient and direct ways” to use government intervention to increase payroll. The last part of the bill could include justification for tax rebates that would stimulate the middle-class spending habits.

Obama has big plans for what he wants to accomplish this fall, but it all comes down to how Congress will vote. He is asking for steep actions, with a lot of money at risk. In order to convince Congress to continue spending and increase, Obama has to be confident his policy will work.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-09-04/obama-to-unveil-economic-measures-next-week/?cid=topic:featured2