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For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
January 24, 2008

Fact Sheet: New Growth Package Meets Criteria to Keep Our Economy Healthy

      President Bush Discusses the Bipartisan Economic Growth Agreement

Today, President Bush announced his Administration reached a bipartisan agreement with House leadership on an economic growth package, and he encouraged Congress to deliver a bill to his desk as soon as possible to bolster the economy this year.  The President's advisors and many outside experts expect that our economy will continue to grow over the coming year, but at a slower rate than we have enjoyed for the past few years – and there is the risk of a downturn.  The agreement reached today meets the criteria the President set forward last week to provide an effective, robust, and temporary set of incentives to protect the health of our economy and encourage job creation.  If enacted in a timely manner, it is expected to help create more than half a million jobs by the end of 2008.

The Growth Package Includes Measures To Bolster Both Business Investment And Consumer Spending, Which Are Critical To Economic Growth 

1.       The agreement reached today would allow Americans to keep more of their money to stimulate consumer spending.  The growth plan provides approximately $100 billion in temporary relief that will allow Americans to keep or spend more of their incomes.  Under the agreement:

2.       The agreement would also offer incentives to spur business investment.  The agreement would save businesses approximately $50 billion in near-term taxes through a temporary change to the tax code that will allow American businesses that buy new equipment this year to deduct an additional 50 percent of the cost of their investment in 2008.  This will encourage businesses to expand and create new jobs now because buying equipment, software, and tangible property this year will dramatically lower their taxes.  The agreement also increases expensing for small businesses. 

The Agreement Reached Today Adheres To Principles President Bush Set Forward Last Week To Guide Deliberations

The growth package:

The Growth Package Announced Today Would Use Proven Methods To Keep Our Economy Healthy

The experience of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts shows that providing tax relief to families stimulates the broader economy by boosting household spending.  For example, rebate checks increased total consumption by about 0.8 percent in the quarter that the 2001 rebates were received and about 0.6 percent in the subsequent quarter.  As the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office noted, "Most analysts agree that the 2001 rebate stimulated the economy."

The approximately $100 billion of individual tax relief included in the growth package represents a substantially larger amount than the tax rebates of 2001.  In 2001, $38 billion was distributed in rebate checks, amounting to 0.4 percent of GDP. $100 billion amounts to 0.7 percent of current GDP.

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