Lawmakers Must Produce a Credible Plan for the Future
Posted at 8 a.m. on Nov. 21, 2012
The worst part about the “fiscal cliff” is not the spending cuts and tax increases, says Clive Crook. Instead, lawmakers should worry about “the harm that the prevailing uncertainty over policy has already caused — and will keep causing, even if the fiscal slope is avoided.”
“Confidence in the domestic economy is low. Weaker economies abroad, especially in Chinaand the euro zone, aren’t helping. The U.S. needs clarity about the fiscal outlook, and that will be hard to achieve… For that, the country needs what it has needed for the past few years: a grand fiscal bargain. Call it Simpson-Bowles for slow learners.”
“On so compressed a timescale, the best that can be hoped for is an agreement to avoid the fiscal slope plus a statement of principles to shape the bigger deal. For that declaration to be of any use, it must be credible — and it can be credible if, and only if, both sides startle everybody by saying what they are willing to give up.”
