Fixing the economy: Are tax increases the solution?
A Wall Street Journal article by Corey Boles describes the tough work cut out for the President鈥檚 fiscal commission, meeting on Tuesday for the first time:
The commission must report back by Dec. 1 with suggestions about how to bring into line the federal government鈥檚 deteriorating finances. Groups representing both ends of the political spectrum are already decrying the panel as unlikely to succeed.
鈥淲e鈥檙e afraid the solutions they focus on will be entitlement cuts which are completely unwarranted,鈥� Roger Hickey, co-director for the Campaign for America鈥檚 Future, an umbrella organization of liberal groups.
Brian Darling, director of Senate relations at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, said he feared the Obama administration would use the panel to justify tax increases.
鈥淭he bottom line is if you give politicians an easy way out they will take it,鈥� Mr. Darling said. 鈥淎nd the easy way out in this case is tax increases and not cutting spending programs.鈥�
The comments from both men illustrate the difficulties the panel鈥檚 members will face in trying to cobble together a bipartisan agreement鈥�
Well, tax increases are certainly not the 鈥渆asy way out.鈥� Just ask the Democrats in Congress why they weren鈥檛 lining up to sign onto Senator Conrad鈥檚 budget resolution. I was told by a prominent aide to the Democratic leadership that this AP story by Andrew Taylor was 鈥渢he article that killed the budget resolution.鈥�
The WSJ story on the commission goes on to quote Concord鈥檚 Bob Bixby (based on this Concord blog post):
According to Robert Bixby, executive director of the Concord Coalition, a non-partisan fiscal watchdog, the panel should narrow its focus if its members want to succeed.
He said they should drop the goal set by Mr. Obama of seeking to bring the budget deficit down to around 3% of U.S. gross domestic product by 2015, something Mr. Bixby said was overly focused on short-termism.
鈥淭hey might have the greatest success with social security,鈥� Mr. Bixby said. 鈥淭hat would be wildly successful by modern standards.鈥�
鈥ut it left out the best part of the Concord statement (via blog) regarding Social Security (emphasis added):
They could begin with Social Security, which oddly enough has gone from being the 鈥渢hird rail of American politics鈥� to the low-hanging fruit. Everyone knows what needs to be done but no one wants to do it. The commission could have a powerful effect by making an obvious recommendation to phase-in benefit reductions and increase dedicated revenues.
Let鈥檚 face it: the President鈥檚 commission isn鈥檛 going to find 鈥渆asy choices.鈥� (If there were such truly 鈥渓ow-hanging fruit鈥�, it would have already been picked.) Nope, they鈥檙e going to have to settle for the 鈥渞elatively easy鈥� among a universe of sufficient choices, all of which are pretty hard.
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