27 February 2009

Obama Budget Plan

It's a decent plan, though once again, it appears to not go quite far enough.

  • He's rolling back the Bush tax cuts at the top tax brackets, though I think that the max marginal rate should made far higher, something like the 70% we had pre-Reagan for income above $5 million/year or so.
  • He's spending $634 billion on expanding healthcare access, which is good, but the real need exceeds $1 trillion.
  • Closes some of the more egregious tax loopholes.
  • Cuts farm aid to big farms
He is also estimating a decent bit of revenue from a carbon cap-and-trade system, which I think is in error. He underestimates the costs of enforcement, speculative pressures, and evasion, which is why I favor a straight carbon tax.

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