Opinion: The great tax debate that wasn’t
By Jim Toedtman
At midnight this New Year’s Eve, unless Congress intervenes, the U.S. tax code does a reverse somersault, upending a decade of tax law and reverting to its alignment of 2001, a tax hike costing $4 trillion over 10 years.
The unyielding calendar dictates that Congress must act quickly. That is an irresponsible option and a wasted opportunity for the nation.
It means a $4 trillion decision after a debate that hasn’t been worth two cents.
What should have been a thoughtful discussion of what we want government to do, followed by selecting the best, most efficient and equitable ways to pay for it, has instead been reduced to a bumper sticker war of words: “Bush tax cuts: keep ’em or kill ’em.”
Our tax code barely reflects the 21st-century world. Instead, vast changes have been accommodated by piecemeal patches and tweaks and an ever-growing list of tax breaks and loopholes that now total $1 trillion a year.
Jim Toedtman is editor of AARP.