The Tax Compromise Doesn't Please the Left or Right
Your editorial "Obamanomics Takes a Holiday" (Dec. 8) makes two important points in showing that the Obama-Republican tax compromise will not be a stimulative panacea. The two-year extension limit leaves in place the policy uncertainty that has burdened our economy to date -- i.e., nothing here has materially changed. Also, the essentials of the Bush income tax structure now existing will mostly remain in place, hardly reasons to celebrate a supply-side stimulative victory.</br></br>Yet many economists and politicos who should know better are touting the compromise as a supply-side victory that will lift the economy and employment permanently toward prosperity, much as the Reagan tax cuts did in the 1980s. Those same politicos, I think, should think twice before they uncork the champagne.</br></br>George Launey</br></br>Lakeway, Texas</br></br>---