He writes, “as a result of the legislation averting the fiscal cliff, our deficits will be more than twice as high over the next five-year period and nearly three times as large over the next decade. And the ratio of debt to GDP will not have stabilized at a manageable level.
“The frightening cliff imagery, and the apparently permanent state of hysteria in Washington, led to unnecessary panic. After his re-election, Obama could have simply announced as his intended policy that he wanted to go back to Clinton-era tax rates. The important justification would have been that the country needed to move back to a system that could raise enough revenue to cover our expenditures.”
Read the full opinion piece, published 1/6/13 in the New York Daily News.
Professor Samwick’s op-ed was also featured on MSNBC’s Morning Joe.
