David Leonhardt has a good piece on the deficit and economic growth, riffing on two deficit reduction reports out recently. The Simpson-Bowles plan was a serious look at reforming the tax code and closing many of the loopholes that reduce tax revenue, while lowering overall tax rates on businesses and taxpayers. The more recent report is the Domenici-Rivlin plan, which is similar to Simpson-Bowles in its efforts to reform the tax code, but includes also a one year payroll tax holiday in order to provide more stimulus to the economy. Both plans take the deficit seriously and make good faith efforts to do so in ways that would be most beneficial to the economy.
Leonhardt wonders, however, if either plan focuses enough on the question of economic growth:
