Taxpayer Jubilee?

Here is a bailout we could all get behind. In the words of Jonah Goldberg:

But rather than blow money on a lavish reenactment of the New Deal, or continue bailing out undeserving corporations, why not really think outside the box? Rep. Louie Gohmert (R., Texas) suggests an across-the-board reprieve on paying 2008 income taxes. This would leave an extra $1.2 trillion in the hands of Americans, who are the best stewards of their own money. Nobel Prize-winning economist Robert Mundell proposes a one-year moratorium on corporate income taxes in order to stimulate investment, job creation and the like. That wouldn’t be as popular, for understandable reasons.

The details can be negotiated, but this sort of approach would certainly create more jobs and spur more consumer demand than paying for a lot of asphalt. It would buy a lot more prosperity than any corporate bailout. Politically, it could buy Obama and Congress a year to formulate a serious tax-reform proposal. And — here’s the amazing part — it would be much cheaper than what we’ve spent already.

Think about that! A tax jubilee would put big chunks of cash back in peoples’ hands. In many cases, it would be enough for a down payment on a house or new car. Or people could save it or pay down debt or invest it. That would bailout the housing industry, the automobile industry, the banks, and the stockmarket. And think what this would do to the national mood.

Barack Obama is promising something dramatic to deal with the economic downturn, so who knows? If he forgave all income taxes for a year, his popularity would be off the charts, even with conservatives.