EPI: No Stimulus for the Poor in Latest Bush Economic Scheme

Though many details are yet to come about the Bush administration plan to stimulate the sagging economy, the Economic Policy Institute says one thing is already clear: The poorest Americans will get little or nothing from the $145 billion proposal. 

"While such a rebate can help boost lagging demand by putting more money in consumers' pockets, the White House plan suffers from very poor targeting, and thus fails on two critical criteria: efficiency and equity," EPI says in its weekly economic snapshot, available at www.epinet.org.

Less than 10 percent of the funds will reach the bottom 40 percent of Americans and 55.9 million households will get nothing at all. EPI says that while many of those households don't pay federal income tax, they do pay other taxes, including payroll taxes on their earnings.