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Tax Cuts, Not Tax Hikes, Ought to be Priority During Recession

The Heritage Foundation has long argued that tax cuts, not tax hikes, are the best policy, especially when the economy is weak. Turns out Barack Obama agrees with us. Watch the video yourself, but here is a rough transcript of Obama’s exchange with George Stephanopoulos from This Week:

STEPHANOPOULOS: Even if we are in a recession next January when you come into office, you’ll still go through with your tax increases?

OBAMA: No, no, no, no, no. What I’ve said George is even if we are still in recession I am still going to go through with my tax cuts. That’s my priority.

Both before and after this exchange, Obama does make the case that raising taxes can help economic growth, sometimes, by lowering the deficit. Heritage scholar J.D. Foster reviews the economic literature and makes the opposite case here.

  • Author: Conn Carroll
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2 Comments

September 8, 2008 TurnerCountyTaxpayersAssoc. Ashburn,Ga. writes:

I seriously think our candidates should study their history of the 29 market crash & great depression of the 30’s. There are many differences then and now, but many similarities!
If you don’t know your history it may come back to bite you in the future.

November 24, 2008 PennRepublican.com » Blog Archive » Government can’t cure our economic woes writes:

[...] productivity. In fact, high taxes undermine growth and punish success. Even presidential candidate Barack Obama understood—as did John F. Kennedy—that tax rates should be reduced (or at least not increased) during a [...]

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