So the “supercommittee” failed last week. Because the group couldn’t come to an agreement on how to close the budget deficit, automatic cuts have to start coming, particularly in defense, plus tax increases in the context of something that looks like a recession. Lesson: it sure is hard to get real reform done in Washington.
Or is it? Just last summer, in the jockeying over the “grand bargain” that gave us the supercommittee, here’s what was on the table. After a few deficit-shearing preliminaries, the top tax rate would be taken down by a quarter, to something like 27%. This would occur in the context of tax reform, where loopholes and credits would be closed, the tandem revenue-neutral. And mind you, all reports were that the Obama administration was in favor.
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