Debunking Orszag’s Tax Hike Myths

Conn Carroll / September 07, 2010

Former White House Office of Management and Budget Peter Orszag may have left the Obama administration this past July, but The New York Times has made sure his opinions won’t fall into obscurity. He is now a Contributing Columnist for the NYT op-ed page and his first effort is a tax-and-spend classic. We have paired some of Orszag’s op-ed statement “myths” with “facts” from JD Foster’s new paper: Obama Tax Hikes Defended by Myths and Straw Man Arguments

Orszag: “In the face of the dueling deficits, the best approach is a compromise: extend the tax cuts for two years and then end them altogether.”
Foster: “Extending the 2001 and 2003 tax provisions is not a tax cut; failure to extend these provisions is a tax hike. Failure to extend current tax policy would impose massive tax hikes on millions of Americans. Preserving current tax policy is not a tax cut.” (more…)