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Not Just About Stimulus
Talking Points Memo — ... I wanted to be clear in the earlier post and clarify if I wasn't sufficiently clear that these checks can be very important for families and individuals. And that's a big deal in itself. But we need both -- help for individuals and families and also macro-economic stimulus. And to the extent that these tax cuts accomplish one and not the other (which I concede is very debatable proposition) my concern is that we may be shortchanging the second because the whole pie appears to be on the low side of what we'd expected and the size of the tax cut slice is pretty big. ...

Why Didn't Last Year's Tax Cuts Work?
The Stump — ... Josh Marshall puts his finger on a key objection to the tax-cuts-as-stimulus approach, noting that we tried that already--last year, in fact--and it didn't work very well. The point he's getting at--that people often save rather than spend temporary tax cuts--is an important one, but I think it can be rebutted in this case.  ...

Obama's clever fiscal stimulus strategy
The Next Right — Barack Obama appears to be making significant overtures to cultivate Republican support for his fiscal stimulus plan with massive tax cuts (albeit short-term tax shifts rather than structural changes or actual cuts).  The Leftroots (and Paul Krugman) are fairly upset about this.  Kevin Drum says this attempt to win bipartisan support (rather than just the few Republican votes he absolutely needs to secure passage) is a bad idea, because Obama is making concessions he doesn't have to make and diluting ...

More from Josh on the tax cuts
AMERICAblog News| A great nation deserves the truth — From TPM: First, there seems to be a decent consensus that the tax rebates from last year had little stimulative effect on the economy.... Second, the amount of the bill that comes in tax cuts leaves the spending side of the bill really small -- judged by the standards of what most economists seem to think is necessary, like $400 billion over two years. So it's not just the logic of the tax cuts on their own merits but the degree they're beggaring the spending side of the ledger.... Obama seems to be telegraphing that to a significant degree the ...