I would like to thank Alan Greenspan...

[hellhathnofury]

Today he outed the Republicans, normally they will just say, "we should make the tax cuts permanent" and leave off the results of such an action. Greenspan completed the sentence for them and I think he did it deliberately. If I remember correctly, Greenspan wanted triggers in the tax cuts in case of deficits, he was ignored and has had a chip on his shoulder since. So today, he goes before Congress and stabs *'s fiscal policy in the chest, he completes the sentence. You can't give tax cuts, make them permanent and then expect everything to be OK. The current fiscal policy is unsustainable, the deficit is out of control something has to be done. You either have to raise taxes or cut services. No one likes a tax hike and no one likes services to be cut. So what's Bush to do? Bush is royally screwed and we owe a thanks to Greenspan for outing him.

Thank you Alan.

[LincolnMcGrath]

1. HHHHMMMMM

Never thought of it that way.

[Eric J in MN]

2. Greenspan isn't in an elected position, so he can tell the truth that

Greenspan isn't in an elected position, so he is one of the few Republicans who can tell the truth about Bush's tax cuts.

We can't have Bush's tax-cuts for the rich and corporate welfare, while maintaining decent Social Security.

One of those has to go, and Republican Greenspan chose decent Social Security to go.

[hellhathnofury]

4. Yeah and what scare's people more,

not getting their retirement or having your taxes go back up a tiny bit. What tax cut? There was nothing.

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

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[Eric J in MN]

5. No way. Greenspan said, Make Bush's tax-cuts permanent and cut Social Sec

No way. Greenspan said, Make Bush's tax-cuts permanent and cut Social Security, because we have to do something about the budget deficit.

Few people would interpret that to mean the country is on the right track.

[arewethereyet]

8. oldsters will like today's Bush response way better than the Medicare bomb

of course he'll get right on it after the election. and it will be alright as they will be "grandfathered" in. Basically we're the ones being screwed. Hope I'm old enough to ride the grandfather train !

[BillZBubb]

6. Greenspan gets no thanks from me

He's known from day one of the Chimpy regime what the consequences were going to be. At every opportunity he did not say one word against the tax cuts. He even said positive things about them.

He's talked about cutting things before so this is nothing new. In fact it probably is meant to help Chimpy, since it will give fresh impetus to his disasterous plan to privatize Social Security. Now, Bush* can claim the almighty Greenspan has agreed with him that something must be done to "save" Social Security.

Greenspan is not our ally and never will be. Please be more cynical.

[hellhathnofury]

7. Of course he's not an ally, how many Dem's voted for the first cut?

It was around 5-10 right?

Privatization is pretty unpopular and after this it's going to look even worse to recipients. Why announce that things are so bad? And then have the media pick up on it in such a way.

[loftycity]

14. I agree ..Why announce bad news...Greenspan was telling

us in his circuitous route to the truth. We better wake up. It's going to make Bush's Poll numbers tank. Bush is already on the defensive on Greenspans statement. Not good PR.
I'm no big fan of Greenspan....but it is how politics puts out the message.

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

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[Eric J in MN]

17. It wasn't Greenspan's intention to hurt Bush's chances, but that

It wasn't Greenspan's intention to hurt Bush's chances, but that may be the effect.

It's good to have a Republican saying that Bush's tax cuts for the rich have consequences for the middle-class.

[ignatius]

9. Greenspan allowed the tax cuts in the first place. During Clinton's

presidency he harped and harped about balancing the budget. A few months after the coup of 2000, he did a 360 and backed the tax cuts as a way to give back the taxpayers their money from the $200 billion dollar SURPLUS.

Then tax cut # 2 received his blessings as well. Now some $520 Billion in the red later(and that doesn't include the build Iraq money which is for some ungodly reason off balance sheet)he says we must cut ss to keep the tax cuts.

I hope to hell this does hurt Bush, we dems should play it for all it is worth, but this man gets no kudos from me. My children and granchildren will be paying for his tax surplus cuts for years to come.

[hellhathnofury]

15. You can also thank 12 Democratic Senators for the first one too.

Senate roll call vote

By the Associated Press

The 58-33 roll call by which the Senate voted Saturday to approve a 10-year, $1.35 trillion tax cut package.

On this vote, a "yes" vote was a vote to approve the bill and a "no' vote was a vote to defeat it.

Voting "yes" were 12 Democrats and 46 Republicans.

Voting "no" were 31 Democrats and 2 Republicans.

Feinstein, Lincoln, Cleeland, Miller, Landrieu, Breaux, Carnahan, Baucus, Nelson, Torricelli, Johnson, Kohl and Kerry couldn't find the time to vote.

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

11. Greenspan is worse than a fundie - he's an Ayn Rand "Objectivist"!

Alan Greenspan is a cult member of the Ayn Rand Objectivist variety! He even studied under the grand-dragon herself, Ayn Rand, who believed that white rich businessmen were the natural elites of society! This Alan Greenspan guy should be fired! Besides, look at his lousy record.

[YNGW]

12. SS is sunk.

I give it 50 years tops before it becomes insolvent, and I don't care who's in charge. Make alternative plans now or forget it.

[jpgray]

13. Greenspan is a massive tool. (nt)

[Renew Deal]

16. Bush will do nothing.

Don't expect him to do anything.

[AgadorSparticus]

18. hmmm, you may have a point there....

cutting SS is outrageous. it's SO ludicrous that we should send 87billion to iraq and cut SS? bush's proposed buget is a scam. who in their right mind would propose a budget in the red? that's insane. and perhaps that IS greenspan's point. in any event, it's a good reason to pay attention to the economy again instead of foolishly focusing on mel gibson's movie or gay marriages.