Obama Op-Ed: Go Big on Debt Deal

Friday, 22 July 2011 | by Pat's Picks

President Obama’s byline is on USA Today‘s opinion page this morning, under a headline urging Americans to think of the debt crisis as an “opportunity to do something big and meaningful.” He spends several paragraphs outlining why spending cuts alone won’t fix the deficit before introducing his buried lead: why we must reform the tax system.

He writes: “Before we stop funding clean energy research, we should ask oil companies and corporate jet owners to give up the tax breaks that other companies don’t get. Before we ask college students to pay more, we should ask hedge fund managers to stop paying taxes at a lower rate than their secretaries. Before we ask seniors to pay more for Medicare, we should ask people like me to give up tax breaks they don’t need and never asked for.”