Fed chairman urges Congress to reinstate budget rules that would require f

[Judi Lynn]

Fed chairman urges Congress to reinstate budget rules that would require future tax cuts to be paid for

MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Economics Writer
Thursday, February 12, 2004


(02-12) 10:11 PST WASHINGTON (AP) --

Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said Thursday Congress should reinstate budget rules that would force lawmakers to cover the estimated $1 trillion that it will cost to make President Bush's tax cuts permanent.

Greenspan said he favored reductions in government spending to pay for making the tax cuts permanent and suggested that one place to look should be in reducing the Social Security benefits paid to retirees.

Appearing before the Senate Banking Committee, Greenspan said he has been urging since the fall of 2002 that budget rules known as pay-go -- which require any tax cuts or increases in government entitlement spending be paid for by either raising taxes in other areas or cutting government spending -- be reinstated. (snip)

Greenspan's comments were at odds with statements made by President Bush, who has called for budgetary caps to be reinstated -- but only on the spending side, not on the tax side. That position would avoid having to find savings to pay the estimated 10-year cost of $1 trillion to make Bush's tax cuts permanent.
(snip/...)

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/02/12/national1311EST0625.DTL

[Jacobin]

1. two years too late chairman mao.....er greenspan

[Gin]

3. who changed the rules Greeenspan is talking about? Or..should I even ask?

gin

[54anickel]

2. Funny how MSNBC spun it differently

If you don't read the subtitle you miss the entire mention of spending control.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4250906/

WASHINGTON - Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan on Thursday lent support to a White House bid to make $1.7 trillion in tax cuts permanent, telling Congress spending control was the best way to cut the budget gap.

"I am in favor ... of continuing the tax cuts that are in dispute at this particular stage," the influential central bank chief told the Senate Banking Committee, wading into a contentious election-year debate.

[htuttle]

4. I didn't miss this part...

Greenspan said he favored reductions in government spending to pay for making the tax cuts permanent and suggested that one place to look should be in reducing the Social Security benefits paid to retirees.

Hey, look everybody. Mr. Magoo is about to step on the third rail!

[indepat]

7. Wow, I've long anticipated this coming, but coming from the Fed

Chairman to pay for the tax cuts for himself and his ilk is much worse than blasphemous, IMHO: he has sold his soul if he actually suggested it. But folk, the handwriting was on the wall and we should have seen it coming, for this would just be another regressive tax scheme for millions of lower and middle income seniors to fund the tax cuts for the most wealthy. Hopefully Greenspan is misquoted.

[Jacobin]

8. LMAO

(cleaning up keyboard)

[Bandit]

10. Greenspan can say these things with impunity he isn't running for office

He is on the way out. Everyone knows that. He can throw stuff like this out there and then along comes Bush* to temper it and seem the hero. Old time Government trick.

[tedzbear]

5. Greenspan is an elitist prick!

He is a shill for the Fortune 500 elites who make their corporations the priority over the needs of the American people.

Greenspan is asking Congress to make the dividend tax cut permanent, and to pay for it they should cut back all social services for the middle class and poor. He wants our government to be downsized to the point it will be like Mexico, where they let the poor suffer without helping them. But god forbid we take one single dollar away from the Pentagon! It needs its hundreds of billions to fight the bad guys who use $5 box cutters. What a joke.

Greenspan is a prick.

:kick:

[schultzee]

9. bush learned much from corrupt fascist Mexico.

[denverbill]

6. Nice. Cut income taxes, and reduce payroll benefits.

Typical Republican fuckwad. Jesus H Christ, Social Security is self-funded, and OVERFUNDED. And where does this asshole think govt spending should be cut? In the one area that is actually paying it's own way and more right now. Our goddamned payroll taxes, which assholes like Greenspan don't even pay after $85,000, go straight into the general fund to be used to give tax cuts to this asshole.

Why the hell can't people see what is going on here?

[NashVegas]

11. Do I Have This Correct?

Bush gave away tax breaks galore to rich people.

Alan Greenspan wants congress to pay for the breaks by being revrse-Robin Hoods?

Oh, help me Supply Side Jesus.