Word: taxed
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Just a Deal - a New Deal Obama hasn't yet released details of his plan, so the debate has so far focused on the overall dollar amount (liberals want more, conservatives less) and general makeup (liberals want fewer tax cuts, conservatives more) rather than specific strategies for priming the pump. But the clichés are true: God - or the devil - will be in the details...
...high-speed rail lines and subway stations tend to take more time to build than roads or repairs. And while a recent study calculated that the average dollar spent on infrastructure ricochets into $1.59 worth of short-term growth - a bit better than aid to states or broad-based tax cuts and a lot better than tax cuts for businesses or investors - increasing food-stamp or unemployment benefits packs even more bang for the buck...
...first element will be giving money to state and local governments to offset their shortfalls and prevent them from raising taxes, slashing services and downsizing public employees. Just about every economist wants this aid approved yesterday because just as public dollars can have a big multiplier effect, public cuts that are imminent in New York, California and Florida can have a negative multiplier effect. "You can't let the safety net unravel just when people need it most," says Len Burman, director of the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. "A lot of states have been terribly irresponsible, but this probably...
...attached; otherwise, we'll repeat the bailout of the financial sector, which pocketed the federal handouts and kept doing whatever it pleased. Bailouts should be reserved for states and communities facing the most drastic contractions - and even those shouldn't be rewarded for frittering away surpluses on sunny-day tax cuts and race-to-the-bottom subsidies designed to lure out-of-state businesses. States shouldn't be rewarded for keeping their fiscal houses in order by stiffing Medicaid programs either...
Obama's second strategy will be giving money to people - through tax cuts as well as food stamps, jobless benefits and health care for the unemployed. Direct transfers are the fastest way to ship money out of the Treasury, but they don't provide stimulus if they don't get spent. That's what happened last year to a $168 billion stimulus package that relied on income tax rebates - remember when $168 billion was a big deal? - but foundered when many recipients hoarded the cash or paid down credit-card debt. It turns out that smart personal-finance decisions make...