The Stimulus Package: Too High A Price 
 From the 12/11/01 New Dem Daily.  Please let the Colorado DLC know what 
you think.

This week the long, windy debate in Washington over a so-called economic 
stimulus package will likely be resolved one way or another.  Putting aside 
all the partisan finger-pointing as to who is responsible for this or that 
twist or turn in the process, the bottom line is very clear: Republicans 
are unwilling to support any stimulus package that does not include 
significant new cuts in tax rates for wealthy individuals and 
corporations.  We think that's too high a price to pay for the modest 
relief efforts for the unemployed that should be the focus of this legislation.

The overall economy is not in as bad a shape as many feared at the 
beginning of this debate.  Fiscal stimulus is already being supplied by new 
federal spending related to the war on terrorism and homeland defense.  The 
tax rate cuts Republicans demand will in any event have no positive 
short-term impact on the economy, and could damage its long-range prospects 
by boosting future federal budget deficits.  In effect, the GOP is holding 
unemployment relief hostage to yet another installment in its relentless 
drive for tax cuts targeted to high earners.

It's time for Democrats to call the whole thing off, and call the 
Republicans' bluff on unemployment relief by decoupling it from tax rate 
cuts.  Congress should be debating whether to cancel some of the high-end 
tax cuts enacted earlier this year, in order to pay for the war on 
terrorism.  Instead, Congressional Republicans have spent months talking 
about new demands on public funds for the Americans who are least 
vulnerable in the economic slowdown, and least likely to make personal 
sacrifices in the war effort at home or abroad.

If fiscal discipline means anything at all, it means a willingness to 
resist these sorts of demands.  New Democrats favor bipartisan compromises 
in the pursuit of the national interest, but not in the pursuit of special 
interests.  A deal with Republicans to secure new tax rate cuts would not 
be a compromise between "Left" and "Right," but between right and wrong. 


