"As President Obama has traveled around the country stumping for his latest stimulus spending bill, which he has the audacity to call a "jobs plan," he has challenged folks to read it. As more and more folks read the plan, they are finding it is full of contradictions that will likely doom it to failure, much like his previous stimulus bill. Here's just one issue to consider.
In order to help pay for this stimulus spending, Obama wants to tax the interest earned on municipal bonds. Municipal bonds are issued by states and localities to help fund various projects like roads and education. For decades the interest earned on these bonds hasn't been taxed in order to encourage investors and to offer the lowest possible interest rate so that cities and states could keep their costs down.
A lot of investors like municipal bonds because they are generally safe investments. They are willing to accept a lower return (interest rate) because they are tax free. It's a win-win for investors and the cities and states.
But now when many cities and states are struggling, Obama is proposing to take that tax advantage away from them. Doing so would drive up interest rates and increase the cost of borrowing.
So on the one hand Obama is proposing to send states more federal aid to keep teachers, firefighters and policemen on the job. But on the other hand he is proposing to pay for it in a way that increases costs for the states.
This makes absolutely no sense -- UNLESS you happen to be a left-wing socialist who believes that Big Government knows best and is the fount from which all blessings must flow!"
Gary Bauer
Campaign for Working Families
Posts
