Orszag: Extend Bush Tax Cuts
The Hill reports:
In a break with the White House, Peter Orszag, the former director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), recommended Tuesday that Congress extend the expiring Bush tax cuts for two years, then do away with them altogether.
In an op-ed for the em>New York Times<, Orszag argues that extending all the cuts would help the struggling jobs market, which he dubs a "painful jobs deficit," but that letting all of them expire in two years would help bring down the federal budget deficit.
"In the face of the dueling deficits, the best approach is a compromise: extend the tax cuts for two years and then end them altogether," he writes. "Ideally only the middle-class tax cuts would be continued for now. Getting a deal in Congress, though, may require keeping the high-income tax cuts, too. And that would still be worth it."
Orszag's compromise plan comes as Congress is gearing up to debate the future of the expiring Bush tax cuts when members return from August recess next week.
President Obama has said that he wants Congress to extend the cuts for individuals making under $200,000 and families making under $250,000, but wants the upper income tax breaks to expire.
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