Feb 12, 2009 7:15 pm US/Eastern
Digging Deeper Into The Stimulus Bill
(CBS News)
For restaurant owner Tom Glascow, and for most Americans, the new stimulus package serves up a variety of tax cuts, CBS News congressional correspondent Nancy Cordes reports.
"The bottom line is every little bit will help," Glascow said.
The biggest bit is a $400 credit for almost all workers. That works out to about $13 a week, which may not sound like much, but consider this: "Basically what does my business good is people with disposable income that can spend a little extra on lunch on a daily basis," Glasgow said.
Americans will also get more tax breaks for making big purchases - up to $8,000 for first-time homebuyers. New-car buyers can deduct the sales tax and the college tax credit will jump from $1,800 a year to $2,500.
But the biggest winners may be low-income workers, like Glascow's eight employees. The bill will give workers making as little as $3,000 a year a check of $1,000 per child, and gives a one-time payout of $250 to social security beneficiaries.
"The poor spend almost all additional money that they have coming in," Williams said. "They have lots and lots of needs, relative to their incomes. They need every dollar they can have and a new dollar in the door goes out pretty quickly."
But the stimulus bill does little to spur small business owners like Glascow to add to their payroll.
"President Obama during the campaign proposed a $3,000 refundable tax credit for any business that hired an additional worker," Williams said.
When he was on the campaign trail, Mr. Obama told small-business owners: "You are going to get a tax break!"
"But that's been dropped, it's not part of the stimulus package," Williams said.
And in today's environment, it's going to take a lot to convince employers to start hiring again.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
Timeline: U.S. Credit Crunch & Financial Failures
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