Gov. Haley Barbour (R., Miss.), the chairman of the Republican Governors Association, tells National Review Online that President Obama’s tax-cut talk arrives “a year and a half too late.”
Barbour says Obama’s push for a tax write-off for business capital purchases is “very good,” but nothing new. “That was part of Senator McCain’s platform,” he observes. “If they would adopt the rest of the McCain economic plan, I think we would make some progress.”
“Here’s the problem with what the president proposed: We do not know how he will pay for it,” Barbour says. “If he is planning on other tax increases, then he will wipe out the benefit and the positive effects of these proposals — replacing one tax cut with another tax increase. The devil is in the details.”
UPDATE: The Wall Street Journal echoes Barbour in its editorial:
After 20 months and more than $1 trillion down the Keynesian drain, President Obama is discovering the virtue of tax cuts. Pass the smelling salts, we just fainted.
Yesterday the President proposed a $180 billion plan that includes a permanent research and development tax credit and a tax write-off for all business capital purchases in 2011. These are both sensible ideas that would counteract at least some of the damage from Mr. Obama’s looming tax increase. John McCain could sue for plagiarism because versions of both ideas were part of his 2008 campaign platform.