Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Welcome Back to Reality!
Good to have you back, Doug!
Satyam Khanna:
Think Progress: McCain’s former economic adviser flips on Bush tax cuts: Throughout the presidential campaign, Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) top economic adviser and former CBO director, Douglas Holtz Eakin, argued passionately for McCain’s proposal to extend the Bush tax cuts (and cut some more taxes for the wealthy on top of it). Holtz-Eakin, however, has now come out against making the tax cuts permanent, acknowledging that it would explode the deficit:
Though economist Douglas Holtz-Eakin spent the 2008 presidential campaign advising Sen. John McCain to defend the Bush-era tax cuts, he now thinks they should be allowed to expire on Dec. 31, 2010 due to “the prospect of an Argentina-style fiscal meltdown.” Said Holtz-Eakin: “If you ask: ‘Who pays the taxes?’, it’s the first step toward not having the answer be: ‘Our kids’”...
IIRC, however, that is still only two of five top Republican economic advisers. I think that former Bush CEA chairs Glenn Hubbard, Greg Mankiw, and Eddie Lazear are still on record in favor of extending Bush's tax cuts for the rich--only Ben Bernanke, I think, has joined Holtz-Eakin and is opposed.
