Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner warned of “a big test of the capacity of this country to govern itself” coming this fall, as he defended the Buffett Rule and faulted Republicans for the debt limit fight.
“If you look forward to end of the year in the United States, you face the expiry of a substantial number of tax cuts, the potential impact of a large automatic cut in spending, [and] another debt limit debate,” Geithner said a Brookings Institute event today. “It’ll be a big test of Washington, a big test of the capacity of this country to govern itself in how Washington deals with those challenges,” he added.
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The Treasury Secretary also said that it would be “reassuring” to markets if “Congress will pass the debt limit without all the drama and politics and damage that republicans and Congress imposed on the country last summer.”
Geithner defended the Buffett Rule that would establish as 30 percent minimum tax for millionaires as an essential part of tax reform, which itself addresses the financial crisis.
“The two basic centerpieces of reform that are going to have to happen are ways to restore a greater degree of progressivity in the tax code with a modest increase in the effect tax rates of the most fortun America — that what the Buffett rule tries to do,” he said. “You want to have that alongside comprehensive reform of the business tax system which would lower the rates, broaden the base, and improve the incentive for investment in the United States.”
Geithner said that “tax reform is coming” at the end of the year, explaining that Obama is pushing the Buffett Rule right now in order to prepare for that debate.
