Puny vs. Huge Tax Cuts.The New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times' Bob Herbert Bob Herbert (born March 7, 1945 in Brooklyn, NY), is an op-ed columnist for The New York Times. His column is syndicated to other newspapers around the country. He is distinguished by his frequent columns on poverty and criticism of the war in Iraq. derides President Bush's proposed 10-year, $1.6 trillion tax cut package as "enormous." His op-ed page colleague Paul Krugman Paul Robin Krugman (born February 28, 1953) is an American economist. Krugman, a liberal, is currently a professor of economics and international affairs at Princeton University. calls it "irresponsible." Other newspaper commentators characterize it as "huge." But how big is enormous? At what point does responsible become irresponsible? Does huge do the cut justice? The proposed tax cut is just over 1 percent of GDP GDP (guanosine diphosphate): see guanine. and would shave less than 6 percent off the federal tax grab. Put in this perspective, other adjectives come to mind. Among them: modest, reserved--or downright puny pu·ny adj. pu·ni·er, pu·ni·est 1. Of inferior size, strength, or significance; weak: a puny physique; puny excuses. 2. Chiefly Southern U.S. Sickly; ill. . Anti-tax activist Grover Norquist characterizes it as a good start. "It is smaller than the Kennedy tax cut of the 1960s, it is smaller than the Reagan tax cuts of the 1980s but it is certainly moving in the right direction."
10-year projections (2002-2011) in
trillions
Gross Domestic Product: $139
Federal Revenues: $27.9
Federal Surplus: $5.6
Sources: Congressional Budget Office
and Office of Management and Budget
Note: Table made from bar graph
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