Only one side of coin
Bradley Gitz took a shot last Monday at the recent Democratic $1.9 trillion covid-relief package and its impact on the deficit, but he did not mention the 2017 Republican tax cut of equal cost.
Of the two direct ways the government can stimulate the economy, cutting taxes and increasing spending, spending is more effective. All the money goes into the economy and you may get a multiplier several times the initial investment. Tax cuts are trickier. If they go to people who spend the money immediately, generally poor people, they work well, but if people save the money or use it for something other than consumption or investment, e.g., stock buybacks, you are likely to get less effect than the amount of the cut.
Since the 1980s, Republicans have claimed that tax cuts to the rich pay for themselves--trickle-down economics--but the evidence says this has never been true. Their five large tax cuts that went primarily to the richest 1 percent of Americans or to large companies had predictably little effect on the economy, but did take the national debt from under $1 trillion in 1980 to about $23 trillion before the virus hit. None of this was due to "liberal" spending by Democrats who, to my knowledge, had passed nothing that cost serious money since 1980--the ACA is a money-saver--until just now.
The Democratic spending bill that passed without a single Republican vote has the potential of generating a bigger economic impact than its cost, so that it might actually pay for itself-plus. If those effects are realized, voters should keep in mind that since 1980 Republicans have done nothing but further enrich the already rich and multiply the national debt over 20 times while Democrats have actually helped ordinary Americans and stimulated economic growth.
ROGER WEBB
Little Rock
Some need it more
I am so grateful for that $1,400. I am so grateful so many people I love and care about got it too. But I did some checking; it was a $1.9 trillion stimulus. If dollars were seconds (time-wise), that would be over 60,000 years ago. That's a lot of time and that's a lot of money.
I predict a lot of people will get up and eat their cereal tomorrow. Or breakfast in some cases. And life will go on.
Doesn't matter if you're Democrat or Republican. We're just all people; look out for each other. If you see somebody that needs help, try and help them. I live just south of the Northwest Arkansas Children's Shelter. Sometimes I have to not look at the building, because every time I do, I send a check. I am not rich by any means. But I think they need it more than I do.
JOEL WILSON
Bentonville