Obama Admits Jobs Tax Credit Won't Work

That $3,000 tax credit for each new hire that was one of the main tax incentives in Obama's stimulus plan? The Washington Post reports that it has been taken off the table.

Obama's reasons for dismissing the proposal are remarkably similar to the criticisms Bruce Bartlett leveled against it, as I mentioned last week. Democrats rejected the proposal as "difficult to administer" and "ripe for abuse." Bartlett (a Republican, not a Democrat) wrote that it would be pretty much impossible to prevent businesses from gaming the system when it came to these tax credits.

He was also skeptical of the idea that Obama's tax incentives would stimulate the economy:

To be effective, however, people must view the new tax credit as a permanent feature of the tax code. As Federal Reserve Bank of New York economist Charles Steindel explains, "consumers will be much more likely to alter their spending behavior if they perceive a tax change to be lasting." The experience of the 1968 surtax shows that temporary tax changes are not effective even when reflected in withholding tables. This fact is also proven by the experience in 1992, when the George H.W. Bush Administration temporarily reduced withholding to give the economy a boost.

Will any of Bartlett's other criticisms ring true in the ears of Obama supporters?