Stave off a massive recession and crippling unemployment by enacting 100% write-offs for all capital goods purchased in 2009: cars, trucks, machinery, tools, etc., not just “equipment.”
Buy a car and write it off in 2009. Detroit will love it. Buy anything and manufacturers across America will love it.
Why 100%?In 2008 Intl¹ Revenue Code §179(b) gave businesses 50% first year depreciation for equipment purchases, capped at $250,000. It didn¹t work. Too little, too late.
The problem now? H.R. 1 extends the 2008 plan that didn¹t work well to 2009. See H.R. 1 §1402 and §1202 in the Senate bill.
Fix it now: create blow-out demand for all manufacturing with 100% write-offs for all capital goods in 2009, generating manufacturing jobs across the country, including Fort Myers and Elkhart.
Include the owners of 32 million apartments and all commercial space. Provide 100% write-offs for energy efficient air conditioners, refrigerators, stoves, and water heaters.
Give our economy a righteous jolt. What¹s important is not what revenue will be lost, but the revenues that will be gained by creating jobs.
Getting the ear of Washington is not easy. On December 1, 2008 I wrote “A Simple Change to Stimulate the Economy.”
On February 3, 2009 Brian Banmiller on CBS explained the program.
On February 6 I wrote another piece explaining 100% write-offs in 2009.
Finally Friday¹s ad in the Washington Post where at least some informed decision-makers should take note.
The bottom line. We are in Depression levels of unemployment in many areas of the U.S.
We have everything to gain and a Depression to avoid by turning on the great American economic engine full force.
Let businesses write-off what it buys in 2009, without depreciation limits, and our economy will erupt. It is what we need.
Onward,
Richard Alexander
