As it did under Clinton in 1993, when he raised taxes on the top 1.2 percent of income earners. Bob Rubin, Clinton’s Treasury Secretary and the man who led the charge against to repeal the Glass-Steagall Act, is, in a rare moment, spot on:
Advocates of extensive tax expenditure reduction argue — correctly — that all deficit reduction choices involve substantive costs and are politically difficult. They then suggest that, when compared to other possibilities, substantially more cuts may be doable than the Congressional research numbers suggest.
Raising tax rates for those with the highest incomes challenges the supply-side proposition that even moderately higher rates would hurt growth. President Bill Clinton’s 1993 deficit reduction plan increased income tax rates for roughly the top 1.2 percent of incomes. Opponents said this would lead to recession. Instead, we had enormous job creation and the longest economic expansion in our history.
