Extend Bush-era tax rates, says … Larry Summers?

Yesterday, Bill Clinton got into hot water by making the radical suggestion that having a massive tax hike in a recessionary environment might not be such a great idea.  Clinton walked that back later in the day after other Democrats attacked him and questioned his motives for, er, making economic sense.  Those critics might be turning their guns on Barack Obama’s first Director of the National Economic Council and a key architect of Obama’s economic policies, who said the same thing earlier today on MSNBC’s Morning Joe [see update below]:

Lawrence Summers said Wednesday that Congress should temporarily extend Bush-era tax cuts, making him the second person with ties to the White House who is undercutting President Barack Obama’s position that the rates on upper-income Americans should rise at year’s end.
“The real risk to this economy is on the side of slow down…and that means we’ve got to make sure that we don’t take gasoline out of the tank at the end of this year,” he said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program. “That’s gotta be the top priority.”
Mr. Summers’s comments echoed remarks made by his former boss, former President Bill Clinton. Mr. Clinton suggested Tuesday that Congress should temporarily extend the tax cuts, but later in the evening a spokesman for the former president walked back his comments.

Yesterday, Summers backed Obama on spending, arguing that low rates meant that government should borrow more rather than less:

Read more: http://hotair.com/archives/2012/06/06/extend-bush-era-tax-rates-says-larry-summers/