海角大神

No answers on Obama aministration's tax policy from Tim Geithner

Watch the of Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner to see how amazingly thick鈥揳nd dense鈥搕hat campaign-promise body armor is. It鈥檚 obviously the Administration鈥檚 favored strategy to avoid the 鈥減olitically explosive choices鈥� that David Gregory attributes to my boss Bob Bixby.

This is more of the same: no courage from our policymakers on laying out the specifically tough choices necessary to get back to a sustainable federal budget outlook. Administration officials and members of Congress are only willing to talk about tough choices until you ask them to explain 鈥�what tough choices, exactly?鈥�

That鈥檚 also why many members of Congress aren鈥檛 so enthusiastic about laying out their plan for the budget this year. (See the on the need for a budget resolution.) The necessary choices are so tough that the policymakers don鈥檛 want to spell them out in any way if they can help it. They鈥檇 rather turn away from the problem than confront it. It鈥檚 like they鈥檙e saying 鈥渋t鈥檚 so bad, I can鈥檛 bear to look.鈥� And so nothing is done, nothing changes, and the problem gets even worse. But the policymakers keep thinking everything鈥檚 alright because they feel safely ensconced in their thick (and dense) political body armor.

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