Institute for Policy Innovation: Abuse of English Language to Call Pork Bill 'Stimulus'

/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, the U.S. Senate passed a bill that not only will fail to create new jobs, but is teeming with runaway government spending for increased welfare, overgrown bureaucracy, pork, political payoffs and other waste.

"To call this spending bill 'stimulus' is an abuse of the English language," said Peter Ferrara, director of entitlement and budget policy at the Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI).

The centerpiece of the stimulus bill is little more than a welfare check -- a $500 per worker "tax credit" totaling $150 billion.

"There will be no economic net gain because the government will just borrow $150 billion from the private sector to give away, nor will there be any added incentives to save, invest, or start or expand a business, or create jobs," said Ferrara.

IPI president Tom Giovanetti agreed, saying, "This is like going through the neighborhood breaking windows to provide economic stimulus for the glass company."

To create a sustainable economic stimulus, comprehensive reductions in tax rates must be implemented. This includes:

-- Slashing the corporate tax rate to 20%;
-- Cutting the federal corporate capital gains rate from 35% to 15%;
-- Returning billions in investment capital to America by allowing
multinational companies' overseas earnings to be subject only to a 5%
corporate tax;
-- Allowing immediate deductions for all capital investment in machinery
and equipment, rather than extending only partial deductions over
several years through depreciation;
-- And unleashing America's energy industry through deregulation,
assuring a low-cost, reliable energy supply, adding to GDP and
creating jobs.


In the words of Ronald Reagan, government is not the solution to the problem, government is the problem. The only solution to getting the U.S. economy booming again is to unleash the private sector through fundamental tax relief.

Major Media Excuse Obama Nominee's Failure to Pay Taxes

/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Rather than provide a check on the abuses of those in power, Accuracy in Media editor Cliff Kincaid says the media are making excuses for Obama Treasury Secretary nominee Timothy Geithner's failure over the years to pay a variety of taxes and to make sure those he hired as domestic help had legal status in the U.S. The media, Kincaid argues, are functioning as arms of the Obama Transition office. The most popular excuse, first put forward by the Obama office, is that Geithner just made "honest mistakes." This excuse has been picked up by the media, he notes.

In a column on the subject, Kincaid says, "based on the documents that have come out, he [Geithner] is either a tax cheat or a dummy when it comes to his basic personal finances and tax matters. Do we want either one as head of the Treasury Department?"

Kincaid suggests poor coverage of the scandal by NBC News may be related to the fact that Jeffrey Immelt, chairman and chief executive officer of NBC parent company General Electric (GE), is on the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, whose president is Timothy Geithner. "It is also interesting to note that a subsidiary of GE, GE Capital, is getting some of the federal bailout money that Geithner, if he is confirmed, will have a role in managing," Kincaid notes. He asks, "Conflict of interest, anyone?"

He adds, "Another member of the board of the New York Fed is Lee C. Bollinger, the president of Columbia University, who serves on the board of the Washington Post Company. This is the media conglomerate whose media properties include the Washington Post newspaper, Newsweek, and Slate."

"Connections like this help explain why Geithner's tax problems won't become a scandal or even much of a controversy for major elements of the media," the AIM editor concludes.