A Republican Stimulus From Obama’s White House

According to the Washington Post, the White House is considering an idea stolen from the Republican playbook — a new stimulus package focused on tax cuts for businesses.  Specifically, the staff-level discussions suggest the possibility of a “payroll tax holiday” where businesses would be exempt from paying taxes on their workers for some period of time.

Unfortunately, there is no sign that the White House is putting any more thought than Republicans have (that would be zero) about how to pay for the resulting loss of government revenue without piling on even more debt, selling even more T-bills, and thus soaking up with one hand the very same investment capital that they would be trying to free up with the other.

Also, proponents of the “tax holiday” have never really explained how it would function as stimulus.  In theory, I suppose they could say that if businesses didn’t have to pay taxes on new workers, they might hire more.  But a three-month or even six-month “tax holiday” is hardly going to cover the cost of a new worker over a  period of years afterward.  And it does nothing to cover the other massive costs of new workers, especially health care benefits that are becoming a much greater burden than payroll taxes (thanks in part to the Obama Administration’s health care “reform” package).

As usual, no one is asking the hard questions except when it’s politically useful as a bludgeon on the other side.  But with the White House considering calling a Republican play, will anyone have that interest?  Or will both parties combine their respective fiscal fantasies into a bipartisan delusion?