President Bush’s economic stimulus plan has its moments, but if it’s geared to be a quick shot in the arm for the U.S. economy, many facets of the plan seem to go about it in the wrong way.

Bush has proposed speeding up tax cuts already approved, eliminating the dividend tax for stocks, extending unemployment benefits, increasing the per-child tax deduction and eliminating the so-called marriage penalty tax.

Democrats have criticized the administration’s plan because they say too many of the benefits of the tax cuts would go to the wealthy. This tired, emotional argument is fundamentally flawed; the wealthiest pay the most, so of course they’ll benefit more from a tax cut.

The bigger problem with Bush’s proposals is that some of them may not work fast enough, if at all. The per-child tax credit wouldn’t put money into families’ pockets until 2004, and some experts say elminating the tax on stock dividends won’t actually do much to encourage activity in the sagging stock market.

The point of such a plan is supposed to be a quick jump start for the economy, but some of the proposals don’t appear likely to provide it. Instead, eliminating the dividend tax and implementing tax cuts, while admittedly putting more cash into private hands, has the other effect of increasing the federal government’s debt, which could drive up interest rates now and dig the country into a deeper long-term hole. Unless Bush is prepared to propose cutting federal spending to reduce debt, more tax cuts at this time could be risky.

Tribune editorials represent the opinion of the newspaper’s management and editorial staff.