Warner's Bipartisan Solution to the Tax Cut Problem

In an op-ed in the Financial Times today, Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) discussed tax breaks for the wealthy, an issue on everyone’s minds in the wake of the debt commission’s release and Congress's looming to do list. Instead of temporarily extending or letting the tax cuts for the top 2 percent of earners to expire altogether, he advocates an alternative, a compromise between the traditionally Democratic and Republican stances on the issue: allowing the tax cuts for the top 2 percent to expire, and reinvesting the $65 billion saved in “new, targeted business tax cuts and incentives to spur private-sector investment.” This proposal, Warner says, “does not grow the size of government, or increase tax revenues—instead it moves tax cuts from one area to another, in order to encourage jobs and investment.” Warner sees this as a constructive, beneficial, and bipartisan solution.

Maya MacGuineas has also echoed Warner's proposal recently in a CNN Money op-ed, where she suggests redirecting the money from a potential tax cut extension to better targeted stimulus.