Newswise — “Almost all professional economists believe that the Bush Administration’s tax cuts have already increased the national debt by hundreds of billions of dollars. Even Alan Greenspan, who supported the Bush tax cuts as chairman of the Federal Reserve, has publicly opposed their extension.
“Most poor and middle-income families spend their entire income. Therefore, higher tax rates for those families would indeed deprive the economy of much-needed short-run stimulus. But extending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest families, who typically consume much less than they earn, would be one of the worst possible ways to stimulate spending.
“State budget crises have caused hundreds of policemen, fire fighters, teachers and other public servants to be laid off every week. The revenue from letting the Bush tax cuts on the wealthy expire could be used keep these people on the job.
“To bolster current spending without adding more to deficits than necessary, we have no better option than to let the Bush tax cuts on the wealthy expire as scheduled.”
--Robert Frank, professor of economics at the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University
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