What we did on January 1st isn’t tax reform, but it may well preclude any tax reform for this year. First, the whole point of tax reform is to reduce the rates and broaden the base. But we just raised the rates. I find it difficult to think that after the election, where Obama campaigned and won on higher tax rates on the rich, that policymakers would then turn around and reduce rates on the rich, even in exchange for a broader base.
January 9, 2013, William G. Gale,
The Fiscal Times