This Element is an excerpt from Seeds of Destruction: Why the Path to Economic Ruin Runs Through Washington, and How to Reclaim American Prosperity (9780137027736) by Glenn Hubbard and Peter Navarro. Available in print and digital formats.

After the failures of Obama and Congress: a better, bipartisan route back to prosperity.

Mr. Bernanke is right that if the profligate policies of Congress and the Obama administration continue, we will face some hard choices. But he offers as the only choice harsh budget and program cuts and painfully higher taxes. There is a better way: to undertake the broad-based structural reforms we identify in our Seeds of Prosperity blueprint.