May 14, 2003 12:20 PM | Permalink | 
The economic stimulus bill proposed by Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) provides a bigger immediate boost to the economy and larger tax cuts for most taxpayers over the next two years than competing plans approved by Republicans in the House and on the Senate Finance Committee. At the same time, the Democratic plan avoids the huge increase in long-term federal borrowing that the Republican plans entail.
A computer analysis of the tax provisions of the Democratic plan by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy finds:
Over the next two years, the Democratic plan offers an average tax cut of $575 to middle- and low-income taxpayers. That compares to only $347 under the House bill and $215 under the Senate Finance Committee bill.
More than 43 percent of the tax cuts in the Democratic plan over the next two years would go to taxpayers in the bottom three-fifths of the income scale. In contrast, the House bill offers these 80 million families and individuals only 9.2 percent of its tax cuts over the next two years. The Senate GOP plan provides them with only 10 percent of its tax cuts.
The House GOP plan would provide the best-off one percent of all taxpayers with an average of $72,106 in tax cuts over the next two years. The Senate GOP plan gives this group an average of $28,005 over two years. The Senate Democratic plan provides $2,301 in tax relief to the wealthiest families.
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