Economy, Tax Cuts | featured news

Financial markets would be affected adversely if U.S. lawmakers fail to agree on a "fiscal cliff" deal before Tuesday, President Barack Obama said in an interview broadcast on Sunday, while urging Congress to act quickly to extend tax cuts for middle-class Americans.

Congressional leaders of both parties will meet with the president in an effort to reach a deal to avoid across-the-board tax increases and spending cuts that could push the economy into recession.

Amid a global fright over Washington's political brinkmanship, U.S. lawmakers return to the capital on Tuesday with a seven-week deadline to reach agreement on scheduled tax hikes and budget cuts that threaten to trigger another recession.

Ronald Reagan wearing cowboy hat at Rancho del Cielo. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Since the arrival of President Ronald Wilson Reagan, it has become a matter of conservative orthodoxy that tax cuts for the rich will, inevitably, lead to economic prosperity.

Economists Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers write that “the debate in Washington about economic policy is phony. It’s manufactured. And it’s entirely political.” ... Turns out that there’s wide agreement that the stimulus created jobs, TARP was necessary, market factors drive gas prices, tax cuts reduce revenue, tax increases and spending cuts will have to be part of a deficit solution and more.

President Obama this evening rolls out a plan to inject $447 billion into the ailing economy through tax cuts aimed at working families and small businesses and spending to rebuild infrastructure, proposing a larger cash infusion than expected – and, perhaps, more than Congress will seriously consider.

Democratic leaders called on Wednesday for new spending and tax cuts to boost the sluggish U.S. economy, setting up a fresh hurdle for bipartisan efforts to head off a government debt default this summer.

President Barack Obama signed into law an $858 billion bill extending for two years Bush-era tax cuts to boost a fragile economy and add jobs.

President Obama held his first full-scale White House news conference in three months and the first of the fall campaign season. He announced his promotion of the White House economist, Austan D. Goolsbee, to succeed Christina Romer as chairman of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers, and also addressed other issues of the day, including the Middle East peace talks and the debate over extending the Bush tax cuts.

The Obama administration is considering a range of new measures to boost economic growth, including tax cuts and a new nationwide infrastructure program, according to people familiar with the discussions. On the list of possible actions: additional tax cuts for small businesses beyond those included in a $30 billion small-business lending bill before the Senate. It's not clear what those tax breaks would target or how much they might cost in lost revenue to the government.