Peter Orszag on Fiscal Policy

Peter Orszag writes for the New York Times. He goes off his Obama administration position, calling for only a two-year extension of the expiring Bush tax reductions, and for America to fight the recession now and fight the long-term deficit later.

I wish he had drawn a clearer distinction between what he regards as first-best policy--higher taxes on the rich, a VAT, lower income taxes on the middle and the working class--and what he regards as a politically attainable compromise. And I wish...