A key fact lost in all the fiscal-cliff wrangling is that neither tax rates nor spending cuts alone can balance the budget. The magic ingredient is economic growth. Consider the Clinton era: despite higher taxes for most Americans, greater GDP growth driven by a tech boom created jobs and turned a deficit into a surplus. Today, say economists like Harvard's Ken Rogoff, we need to get closer to our historic growth of 3% than the current 2% to make the fiscal math work. The trick is taking steps to nurture growth. "But politically, there's almost nothing you can do that's uncontroversial,"...
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