Obama’s Budget Misses an Opportunity to Tackle Tax Reform: View

Do as I say, not as I do. That was the unwelcome message in President Barack Obama’s federal budget for 2013. The president calls on Congress to begin work on corporate tax reform, including simplifying and lowering the overall corporate rate. Yet his fiscal blueprint doesn’t even hint at how he would achieve that. Instead, he would add new layers of tax complexity.

The $3.8 trillion budget, released yesterday, is stuffed with dozens of tax initiatives, including a tax on millionaires, a $61 billion tax on banks, and various changes that punish or reward specific industries and behaviors. In the unlikely event that congressional Republicans play along, some of the president’s initiatives would do the U.S. little good in the short run, and are unlikely to prepare it for the challenges ahead.