WHATEVER THE FINAL FIGURE, STIMULUS IS STILL VITAL

摘要

The strength of the economy in the coming year may well be in the hands of just 100 people. With the Easter recess over, the Senate will take up President George W. Bush's tax plan: $350 billion in cuts or $550 billion? Increase the child credit or abolish the dividend tax? However it plays out, Washington pump-priming will have to go a long way to offset the drags from a weak labor market, an iffy global economy spooked by the severe acute respiratory syndrome epidemic, and tax hikes on the state and local level.