Criticising Washington for being irrational about tax and spending a year from a presidential election is about as pointless as admonishing a box full of frogs. But at some point politicians simply have to get serious. Barack Obama delivered his deficit reduction speech on Monday against a background of slowing growth, 9 per cent unemployment and a sovereign debt downgrade.
For a start, the sound bites have to stop. Calling all wealthy Americans “job creators”, for example, is as unhelpful as it is ridiculous. Equally, claims that the rich are taxed less than secretaries are unfair and need qualifying. Such comments are deflecting the debate from where it needs to focus. Where is that? Not on the roughly $600bn in mandatory spending cuts the president outlined – they are a no-brainer. Rather it is the revenue side of the story that needs sober consideration.
Here, both sides must at least think about the other’s viewpoint. President Obama is wrong to insist that cuts must be “balanced” with tax increases. Leave aside that he favours targeting the wealthy and big corporations in particular. Rather he may be wrong to insist on raising taxes now. The White House should mull the effect that a small 2 percentage point increase in consumption tax had on Japan’s nascent economic recovery in 1997.