As for the consequences of letting the tax cuts expire, just today, the Heritage Foundation released a comprehensive study showing that the tax hikes envisioned by President Obama would lead to slower economic growth, lower family income, higher interest rates and a loss of an average of 600,000 private sector jobs each year from 2011 through 2020, or 6 million fewer jobs total.
Liberals are already trying to frame the deficit debate as one of making sure government has the money it needs to pay for the vast expansion President Obama and congressional Democrats achieved over the past 19 months. A fair and balanced news media would put much of the onus on liberals to backtrack on their massive spending commitments before requiring the beleaguered private sector to kick in an even greater share.
Here’s the exchange during the 8am ET hour of CNN’s American Morning, September 20:
JOHN ROBERTS: Seventeen minutes now after the hour. We have 110 days until the Bush tax cuts are set to expire and the debate over whether to extend them has absolutely consumed Capitol Hill. The strongest impact will most certainly be felt in the bank accounts of millions of Americans.CANDY CROWLEY: Minding your business this morning, CNN/Money's Paul La Monica. President Obama is suggesting that the tax cuts should expire only for the richest 3 percent of taxpayers but there are economist who say that may not be the best idea. [turns to La Monica] So, is it?
PAUL LA MONICA: Yeah, we surveyed 31 leading economists and a majority, 18 of them, said that their top priority if they were a Washington policymaker would be to extend the tax cuts for everyone.
ROBERTS: So in terms of extending the tax cuts and what that does for the economy, run the numbers for us. You have got an example here.
LA MONICA: Yeah. You have a middle class family, $75,000, you know, two children, you would have about $2600 in higher taxes if the cuts are not extended.
ROBERTS: So — for the average family that's a lot of money, but particularly in these hard economic times, when you know you are worried about, ‘Am I going to keep my job,’ ‘Should I buy that,’ — to not to get hit with an extra bill of $2600, that’s substantial.
LA MONICA: Definitely, that's why I think there is such urgency in Washington to get something done. It does seems that the main issue is, obviously, just trying — whether or not to extend them for everyone or to exclude the wealthiest top percent of the country. I mean a lot of people both Democrats and Republicans think that extending it for the middle class is obviously the right thing that has to be done, particularly in these tough times.
CROWLEY: You know those tax cuts are already in place, so I'm going to assume that keeping them doesn't really change the job market, it simply — the argument is [if they expire] things will get worse for America.
LA MONICA: Exactly. It's similar to two years ago when the financial crisis was really first starting to take hold, a lot of things that Washington or you know, was hoping to do right now is preventing the economy from deteriorating any further. I mean we've had obviously hopes of a recovery earlier in the year that have started to fade this summer. And that's worrying a lot of people on obviously, you know, in Washington and on Wall Street.
ROBERTS: So when you look at the calculation, Paul, you’ve got your rock and you’ve got your hard place. The rock being you want more money coming in to the economy itself so you want to put more money in the pockets of people, particularly when you look at unemployment over 9 percent. But then at the same time you have these deficits that are running at an absolutely frightening rate of a trillion-plus dollars a year. So, you’ve got to bump up your revenue stream but at the same time you want to keep your money coming into the economy. So how do you reconcile that calculation?
LA MONICA: Yeah, that's very difficult. It's the classic short-term versus long-term solution right now that people are trying to weigh. What is more important? A lot of people that we have spoken to at CNN/Money say that really Washington has to do everything in their power to help the middle class extending these tax cuts is likely something that can do that even though it could add to the deficit in the short-term. The hope, and admittedly it is something that could bear out over time but you know, you don't know for certain is that if the economy starts to finally pick up some steam and consumers spend more, primarily because maybe they aren't getting this bigger tax hit, the deficit could help take care of itself, because a stronger economy leads to higher tax revenue from not just individuals but businesses over the long haul.
CROWLEY: Paul, thanks so much for breaking it down. Appreciate it.
—Rich Noyes is Research Director at the Media Research Center. You can follow him on Twitter here.
Coming soon: A brand-new NewsBusters design. But we need your help!
On September 2nd, 2010 I had the chance to be a part of an event that signaled a look inside of the type of programming that will lead to this economy turning around. The number one issue in the minds of all America and around the world is the economy. It seems as if the economy has stabilized but with the housing market still showing no signs of improvement, consumer spending still stagnant, top line growth for businesses being nonexistent, and the banks have made living room chairs of their surpluses of cash...the main thing that can fix all of these problems is more jobs! If we had more jobs there would be more people to purchase homes, more money to be spent, the top line of businesses could see growth making hiring possible, and more capital flowing around the economy making the banks less timid to lend money.
People are looking far and wide for job creation and job placement programming that are effective. As a community activist who constantly works with and refers people to programming that can assist someone to obtain gainful employment, I have seen many that are good and many that are not so good. I didn't expect to find one of the most successful programs that I have ever seen at a food bank of all places!
That is right...a food bank...the Community Food Bank of New Jersey. This is no ordinary food bank. Here are some of the things they have been able to accomplish:
• They have produced and served over 400 million pounds of food since its inception in the 1970s.
• They feed over one million people in New Jersey every year.
• They feed people in 19 of the 21 counties in New Jersey
• They average serving over 21 million pounds of food per year, but because of the recession last year they served over 34 million pounds of food.
• They feed over 1300 children per day Monday through Friday in their afterschool program and over 250,000 children per year.
• They effectively stretch each donated one dollar to purchase $11 worth of food.
One might be asking, "This is great but how does this provide jobs?" On September 2nd, Kareem Hertzog, Executive Director of The Optimum Institute of Economic Empowerment, and I were invited to keynote a graduation ceremony of their food service training academy. They take people from all walks of life that live in the New Jersey area and train them for careers in the food service industry. All of their graduates earn their skills by going through a rigorous 14 week, all hands on, on the job training program that effectively prepares the students for exactly what they will be doing on the job when they begin work. The classroom time is limited as they are too busy in the kitchens assisting to produce over 5,000 pounds of food per week. Over 90% of their students find employment because of their obtained experience in this program. The price for this program to the students is zero! They each were able to receive a $4,000 scholarship through a collaboration of private donors who all believe in the program and in the people in their community.
On this day they saw their largest graduating class to date...over 30 students. We saw students, many who were living in halfway houses, smiling bright because they were offered hope and access to actually find employment. They now had acquired culinary skills that they could take around the world into any restaurant. The smiles, the hugs, the outpour of family member support, and the promise of a new day were all things that touched my soul on this day because I was witnessing something truly tremendous. I thank Executive Chef Paul Kapner for allowing us to be a part of this day and urge you to please continue with your fabulous work. It is needed and you are truly making an impact.
Don't take my word for it...watch the video below to see the type of day we had.
Official Google Blog: Google <b>News</b> turns eight
Today we celebrate the eighth birthday of Google News. Not long after the tragic events of September 11, 2001, we started building and testing Google News with the aim of helping you find current events from a wide variety of global and ...
'Fox <b>News</b> Sunday' to Host Kentucky Senate Debate - NYTimes.com
Jack Conway, Kentucky's attorney general and the Democratic candidate for Senate, and Rand Paul, the Republican nominee, have agreed to a live debate on "Fox News Sunday" on Oct. 3.
AllHipHop.com Daily <b>News</b> - : Jay-Z Lands On Forbes 400 <b>...</b>
(AllHipHop News) Hip-Hop mogul Jay-Z is one of 15 entrepreneurs Forbes magazine has predicted will be worth a billion dollars by the year 2015. Jay-Z was named amongst an elite group of tech moguls, hedge-funders, athletes and ...
robert shumake
Official Google Blog: Google <b>News</b> turns eight
Today we celebrate the eighth birthday of Google News. Not long after the tragic events of September 11, 2001, we started building and testing Google News with the aim of helping you find current events from a wide variety of global and ...
'Fox <b>News</b> Sunday' to Host Kentucky Senate Debate - NYTimes.com
Jack Conway, Kentucky's attorney general and the Democratic candidate for Senate, and Rand Paul, the Republican nominee, have agreed to a live debate on "Fox News Sunday" on Oct. 3.
AllHipHop.com Daily <b>News</b> - : Jay-Z Lands On Forbes 400 <b>...</b>
(AllHipHop News) Hip-Hop mogul Jay-Z is one of 15 entrepreneurs Forbes magazine has predicted will be worth a billion dollars by the year 2015. Jay-Z was named amongst an elite group of tech moguls, hedge-funders, athletes and ...
As for the consequences of letting the tax cuts expire, just today, the Heritage Foundation released a comprehensive study showing that the tax hikes envisioned by President Obama would lead to slower economic growth, lower family income, higher interest rates and a loss of an average of 600,000 private sector jobs each year from 2011 through 2020, or 6 million fewer jobs total.
Liberals are already trying to frame the deficit debate as one of making sure government has the money it needs to pay for the vast expansion President Obama and congressional Democrats achieved over the past 19 months. A fair and balanced news media would put much of the onus on liberals to backtrack on their massive spending commitments before requiring the beleaguered private sector to kick in an even greater share.
Here’s the exchange during the 8am ET hour of CNN’s American Morning, September 20:
JOHN ROBERTS: Seventeen minutes now after the hour. We have 110 days until the Bush tax cuts are set to expire and the debate over whether to extend them has absolutely consumed Capitol Hill. The strongest impact will most certainly be felt in the bank accounts of millions of Americans.CANDY CROWLEY: Minding your business this morning, CNN/Money's Paul La Monica. President Obama is suggesting that the tax cuts should expire only for the richest 3 percent of taxpayers but there are economist who say that may not be the best idea. [turns to La Monica] So, is it?
PAUL LA MONICA: Yeah, we surveyed 31 leading economists and a majority, 18 of them, said that their top priority if they were a Washington policymaker would be to extend the tax cuts for everyone.
ROBERTS: So in terms of extending the tax cuts and what that does for the economy, run the numbers for us. You have got an example here.
LA MONICA: Yeah. You have a middle class family, $75,000, you know, two children, you would have about $2600 in higher taxes if the cuts are not extended.
ROBERTS: So — for the average family that's a lot of money, but particularly in these hard economic times, when you know you are worried about, ‘Am I going to keep my job,’ ‘Should I buy that,’ — to not to get hit with an extra bill of $2600, that’s substantial.
LA MONICA: Definitely, that's why I think there is such urgency in Washington to get something done. It does seems that the main issue is, obviously, just trying — whether or not to extend them for everyone or to exclude the wealthiest top percent of the country. I mean a lot of people both Democrats and Republicans think that extending it for the middle class is obviously the right thing that has to be done, particularly in these tough times.
CROWLEY: You know those tax cuts are already in place, so I'm going to assume that keeping them doesn't really change the job market, it simply — the argument is [if they expire] things will get worse for America.
LA MONICA: Exactly. It's similar to two years ago when the financial crisis was really first starting to take hold, a lot of things that Washington or you know, was hoping to do right now is preventing the economy from deteriorating any further. I mean we've had obviously hopes of a recovery earlier in the year that have started to fade this summer. And that's worrying a lot of people on obviously, you know, in Washington and on Wall Street.
ROBERTS: So when you look at the calculation, Paul, you’ve got your rock and you’ve got your hard place. The rock being you want more money coming in to the economy itself so you want to put more money in the pockets of people, particularly when you look at unemployment over 9 percent. But then at the same time you have these deficits that are running at an absolutely frightening rate of a trillion-plus dollars a year. So, you’ve got to bump up your revenue stream but at the same time you want to keep your money coming into the economy. So how do you reconcile that calculation?
LA MONICA: Yeah, that's very difficult. It's the classic short-term versus long-term solution right now that people are trying to weigh. What is more important? A lot of people that we have spoken to at CNN/Money say that really Washington has to do everything in their power to help the middle class extending these tax cuts is likely something that can do that even though it could add to the deficit in the short-term. The hope, and admittedly it is something that could bear out over time but you know, you don't know for certain is that if the economy starts to finally pick up some steam and consumers spend more, primarily because maybe they aren't getting this bigger tax hit, the deficit could help take care of itself, because a stronger economy leads to higher tax revenue from not just individuals but businesses over the long haul.
CROWLEY: Paul, thanks so much for breaking it down. Appreciate it.
—Rich Noyes is Research Director at the Media Research Center. You can follow him on Twitter here.
Coming soon: A brand-new NewsBusters design. But we need your help!
On September 2nd, 2010 I had the chance to be a part of an event that signaled a look inside of the type of programming that will lead to this economy turning around. The number one issue in the minds of all America and around the world is the economy. It seems as if the economy has stabilized but with the housing market still showing no signs of improvement, consumer spending still stagnant, top line growth for businesses being nonexistent, and the banks have made living room chairs of their surpluses of cash...the main thing that can fix all of these problems is more jobs! If we had more jobs there would be more people to purchase homes, more money to be spent, the top line of businesses could see growth making hiring possible, and more capital flowing around the economy making the banks less timid to lend money.
People are looking far and wide for job creation and job placement programming that are effective. As a community activist who constantly works with and refers people to programming that can assist someone to obtain gainful employment, I have seen many that are good and many that are not so good. I didn't expect to find one of the most successful programs that I have ever seen at a food bank of all places!
That is right...a food bank...the Community Food Bank of New Jersey. This is no ordinary food bank. Here are some of the things they have been able to accomplish:
• They have produced and served over 400 million pounds of food since its inception in the 1970s.
• They feed over one million people in New Jersey every year.
• They feed people in 19 of the 21 counties in New Jersey
• They average serving over 21 million pounds of food per year, but because of the recession last year they served over 34 million pounds of food.
• They feed over 1300 children per day Monday through Friday in their afterschool program and over 250,000 children per year.
• They effectively stretch each donated one dollar to purchase $11 worth of food.
One might be asking, "This is great but how does this provide jobs?" On September 2nd, Kareem Hertzog, Executive Director of The Optimum Institute of Economic Empowerment, and I were invited to keynote a graduation ceremony of their food service training academy. They take people from all walks of life that live in the New Jersey area and train them for careers in the food service industry. All of their graduates earn their skills by going through a rigorous 14 week, all hands on, on the job training program that effectively prepares the students for exactly what they will be doing on the job when they begin work. The classroom time is limited as they are too busy in the kitchens assisting to produce over 5,000 pounds of food per week. Over 90% of their students find employment because of their obtained experience in this program. The price for this program to the students is zero! They each were able to receive a $4,000 scholarship through a collaboration of private donors who all believe in the program and in the people in their community.
On this day they saw their largest graduating class to date...over 30 students. We saw students, many who were living in halfway houses, smiling bright because they were offered hope and access to actually find employment. They now had acquired culinary skills that they could take around the world into any restaurant. The smiles, the hugs, the outpour of family member support, and the promise of a new day were all things that touched my soul on this day because I was witnessing something truly tremendous. I thank Executive Chef Paul Kapner for allowing us to be a part of this day and urge you to please continue with your fabulous work. It is needed and you are truly making an impact.
Don't take my word for it...watch the video below to see the type of day we had.
robert shumake
Official Google Blog: Google <b>News</b> turns eight
Today we celebrate the eighth birthday of Google News. Not long after the tragic events of September 11, 2001, we started building and testing Google News with the aim of helping you find current events from a wide variety of global and ...
'Fox <b>News</b> Sunday' to Host Kentucky Senate Debate - NYTimes.com
Jack Conway, Kentucky's attorney general and the Democratic candidate for Senate, and Rand Paul, the Republican nominee, have agreed to a live debate on "Fox News Sunday" on Oct. 3.
AllHipHop.com Daily <b>News</b> - : Jay-Z Lands On Forbes 400 <b>...</b>
(AllHipHop News) Hip-Hop mogul Jay-Z is one of 15 entrepreneurs Forbes magazine has predicted will be worth a billion dollars by the year 2015. Jay-Z was named amongst an elite group of tech moguls, hedge-funders, athletes and ...
robert shumake
Official Google Blog: Google <b>News</b> turns eight
Today we celebrate the eighth birthday of Google News. Not long after the tragic events of September 11, 2001, we started building and testing Google News with the aim of helping you find current events from a wide variety of global and ...
'Fox <b>News</b> Sunday' to Host Kentucky Senate Debate - NYTimes.com
Jack Conway, Kentucky's attorney general and the Democratic candidate for Senate, and Rand Paul, the Republican nominee, have agreed to a live debate on "Fox News Sunday" on Oct. 3.
AllHipHop.com Daily <b>News</b> - : Jay-Z Lands On Forbes 400 <b>...</b>
(AllHipHop News) Hip-Hop mogul Jay-Z is one of 15 entrepreneurs Forbes magazine has predicted will be worth a billion dollars by the year 2015. Jay-Z was named amongst an elite group of tech moguls, hedge-funders, athletes and ...
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