Give it back to tax payers

Broun suggests bold economic jump-start
Nearly $9,000 per U.S. taxpayer
By BLAKE AUED

U.S. Rep. Paul Broun, R-Athens, wants the federal government to cut a check for $9,000 to every taxpayer to stimulate the economy.

But one economist said Broun's plan would do far less to bring the country out of a recession than President Obama's proposed $825 billion mix of spending and tax cuts.

Under Broun's plan, every American who filed a tax return in 2008 would get a check for $8,895.75. Broun said cash payouts to taxpayers would do more to help the economy than Obama's plan, which Broun called a "pork wish list."

"My amendment gives every tax filer their fair share of President Obama's bureaucrat stimulus plan," he said Tuesday in a news release. "It's my belief that putting this money back in the pockets of hardworking taxpayers will do more to turn this economy around than spending it on 150 different federal programs, sod for the National Mall or new cars for feds."

Mailing checks to taxpayers actually will do less to improve the worst economic downturn in 70 years than Obama's stimulus plan, said Jeff Humphreys, director of the University of Georgia's Selig Center for Economic Growth.

Dollars spent on infrastructure are more effective than tax cuts in creating economic growth and will be spent during a six-month to three-year period, sustaining a recovery, said Humphreys, a self-described conservative. "If you want the biggest bang for your federal buck, you spend it on infrastructure," he said.

With consumer confidence at an all-time low, taxpayers are likely to save rebate checks instead of spending them, so the money won't stimulate the economy as effectively, Humphreys said.
"I just think people are going to sit on the money," he said. "It's not going to get spent."
A blend of infrastructure spending, aid to cash-strapped states like Georgia and tax cuts to encourage productivity will work best, Humphreys said.

The House of Representatives is expected to pass Obama's plan today.

Mr. Humphrys is wrong. Of course, it makes sense if your in favor of central planning. Spending large sums over a short period of time will create a construction bubble causing the price of everything related to increase at a geometric rate. How are you going to get the needed employees? Offer higher wages, no doubt. How are you going to ramp up infrastructure construction when the anti growth environmentalist will stall ever project for years. The free market and individual choice are the best answers.