The Lost Headline.

Filed in National by on February 12, 2009

For now until time immemorial, the biggest tax cut in all human history will have been signed into law by a Democratic President. It is not that I am an advocate of tax cuts, but I just find the following supremely rich.

The compromise stimulus plan includes $282 billion in tax cuts over two years. According to the Wall Street Journal, Bush’s first two years of tax cuts amounted to $174 billion. A second batch in 2004 and 2005 cost $231. And those were thought to be bigger than the tax cuts offered by Reagan, Kennedy or others.

Obama kept a campaign promise that few Republican thought he’d keep. If this weren’t part of a larger package, that would be an enormous story. A liberal Democrat in the campaign promised the biggest tax cut in history. Republicans said it was a complete charade (and many liberals didn’t much like it anyway). And the Democrat in his first few weeks delivers the tax cut.

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  1. anon says:

    And the biggest tax increase remains Reagan’s.

  2. Unstable Isotope says:

    Heh.

    That’s why I figured that he had so many tax cuts in the original bill – he wanted to keep his promise.

  3. Is your claim on the huge spending bill with some tax cuts based on nominal or real dollars?

  4. xstryker says:

    Today’s GOP Strategy memo: If you call it a “huge spending bill”, it sounds more ominous. Whatever you do, don’t talk about anything actually in the bill, because every single line item is wildly popular. Also, do not ever, ever, talk about Iraq in term of spending (1 trillion? 2 trillion? 3 trillion?), or the fact that the Justice Department under Bush refused to prosecute contractor fraud discovered by the Pentagon, or the 12 billion dollars in cash that was simply lost without a trace or explanation. Remember, spending is only bad if it helps Americans!

  5. Unstable Isotope says:

    GOP strategy memo: ignore the fact that the Bush tax cuts ran up the deficit, blame it on Obama.