President Obama’s proposal to jolt a listless recovery with $180 billion worth of tax breaks and transportation projects left economists largely unimpressed Tuesday.
“I don’t think they’re game-changers,” says Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics. “I don’t think they’re going to add up to a lot of new jobs.”
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“Corporations are sitting on over a trillion dollars in cash,” says Chuck Marr, director of federal tax policy at the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. “This is an attempt to get them off the dime and start investing.” But Marr says the White House would get better economic results by giving firms tax breaks for creating jobs, perhaps by exempting them from payroll taxes (for Social Security and Medicare) on new hires for a year.
Full story: Obama’s economic recovery plan not a hit with economists – USATODAY.com