O’Neill, Rubin see tax-revamp opening

— President Barack Obama’s re-election is a chance to improve the tax code as part of talks to resolve the looming “fiscal cliff,” according to two former Treasury secretaries, Paul O’Neill and Robert Rubin.

Debt talks and Obama’s win provide a “restart” and “an opportunity for him to educate the people and lead us in the direction we need to go,” said O’Neill, Treasury secretary under President George W. Bush, in an interview to air today on CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPSprogram. O’Neill was joined by Rubin, who served under President Bill Clinton.

Obama, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and congressional leaders have started a new round of deficitreduction talks in a bid to avoid the fiscal cliff, the combination of $607 billion of tax increases and automatic spending cuts that threatens to throw the country into a recession next year. Obama could begin by educating people about the “tax gap,” an estimated $400 billion in uncollected taxes each year, and by starting with “a blank page” in overhauling the tax code, O’Neill said.

Front Section, Pages 6 on 11/18/2012

Upcoming Events