If Barack Obama loses in November, the names Bowles and Simpson may come back to haunt him. Last year the US president rejected the findings of the 18-member fiscal commission even though it was he who created it. Most of the rest of 2011 was devoted to a game of fiscal high jinks with Congress that resulted in the first ever US sovereign credit rating downgrade. It is never too late for Mr Obama to embrace Bowles-Simpson. Indeed, it could help carry him over the electoral finishing line.
如果巴拉克?奧巴馬(Barack Obama)在今年11月的大選中失利,他以后可能會經常想起兩個名字——鮑爾斯(Bowles)和辛普森(Simpson)。去年,奧巴馬否決了擁有18位成員的鮑爾斯-辛普森財政委員會的成果,盡管正是他一手創建了該委員會。之后,在2011年剩余的大部分時間里,政府與國會就財政問題展開激烈博弈,最終導致美國主權信用評級遭到有史以來的首次下調。對奧巴馬而言,無論什么時候支持鮑爾斯-辛普森提議都不算晚。實際上,它可能幫助奧巴馬沖過競選終點線。