In his column Republicans made wrong decision (SN 2/3) Farhan Bhatti asserts that the House Republicans made the wrong decision by voting against the stimulus bill. He correctly claims the House GOP voted against it due to its lack of tax cuts and wasteful spending. The bill certainly had wasteful spending; $100 million for lead hazard reduction and $850 million for wildlife fire management, just to name a few. Bhatti claims that the Republican alternative is simply tax cuts for corporations and high class workers. That is completely false.
The GOP bill included a 5 percent income tax reduction across the board, meaning everyone got a tax cut. The Republicans’ bill included an increase in the child tax credit, a repeal of the alternative minimum tax (which affects middle class tax payers), and a halt on IRA withdrawal taxes for 2009. Sure, they offered a corporate tax cut and a capital gains tax cut, but the corporations are the ones that will ultimately create jobs. Not to mention a non-partisan group applied the Democrats’ algorithms to the Republican bill and found that it would create 6.2 million jobs. The stimulus that passed the House only included $30 billion (5 percent) to fix bridges and highways. According to The Wall Street Journal, only $90 billion out of $825 billion went to items that could reasonably be considered stimulus.
