I agree with much of what Mark Warner’s saying here. Yes, we needed more “stimulus” in the short run, due to the still-wobbly economic recovery. Yes, we did add hundreds of billions more dollars to the national debt by extending the Bush tax cuts another two years. Yes, we absolutely do need to deal with our nation’s long-term, structural deficit. Yes, our country should have a simpler, fairer, broader tax code, also a more progressive one. Yes, 2011 is the time to work on this, before the 2012 presidential year kicks in and makes it essentially impossible. And yes, the president’s budget commission offers some interesting ideas/possible starting points for tackling the deficit.
The question is, will any of this happen, or will the new Teapublican majority in House of Representatives – not to mention the expanded Jim DeMint caucus in the Senate – make reasonable compromise completely impossible? I’m betting on the latter, but hoping that Mark Warner et al. can figure out a way to prove me wrong. We’ll see.
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