February 25, 2004
Greenspan wants old and poor to pay for Bush’s reckless tax cuts for the rich
Alan Greenspan, the Federal Reserve's chairman, called on Congress and the Bush administration today to cut spending and rein in Social Security programs to narrow the record budget deficit and protect the "vigorous expansion" now under way in the American economy. ......In addition to spending cuts in the overall budget, Mr. Greenspan said Congress should consider ways to reduce the costs of Social Security, including pushing up the age at which retirees could begin to receive Social Security and Medicare payments.
......The White House anticipates a shortfall of $521 billion this year, and the administration contends that it can reduce the deficit by half over the next five years by cutting back on domestic spending not related to the military.
Uh, that $521 million does NOT include the cost of the ongoing war in Iraq. Also, those numbers are based on incredibly rosy and unrealistic forecasts like this one:
The White House backed away Wednesday from its own prediction that the economy will add 2.6 million new jobs before the end of this year, saying the forecast was the work of number-crunchers and that President Bush was not a statistician. ......Posted by Norwood at February 25, 2004 11:13 PM
Comments
