With unemployment low, inflation high and interest rates on the rise, the time is right to bring back an old idea: bipartisan talks to reduce the federal budget deficit.
I know: Try to contain your excitement. But it wasn’t so long ago — about a decade — that the U.S. was consumed by a mania for deficit reduction. From the Simpson-Bowles Commission to the so-called Supercommittee, from sequestration to the fiscal cliff, the topic was unavoidable.
Republicans wanted sweeping cuts to government spending. Then-President Barack Obama was willing to meet them halfway, but only if they would join him in raising taxes on the wealthy. Ultimately, the grand bargain didn’t happen. But federal discretionary spending was restrained, the tax cuts enacted under President George W. Bush were partially reversed, and the deficit did fall.
