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United States News Title: Greenspan Says Lawmakers Should Let All Bush’s Tax Cuts Lapse July 15 (Bloomberg) -- Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, whose endorsement of George W. Bush’s 2001 tax cuts helped persuade Congress to pass them, said lawmakers should allow the cuts to expire at the end of the year. “They should follow the law and let them lapse,” Greenspan said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Conversations with Judy Woodruff,” citing a need for the tax revenue to reduce the federal budget deficit. Greenspan’s comments, to be broadcast tomorrow and over the weekend, place him in the middle of an election-year struggle over extending trillions of dollars of tax cuts enacted under Bush. President Barack Obama campaigned for election in 2008 on a promise of extending the Bush tax reductions for families earning up to $250,000 while eliminating the cuts for higher- income Americans, a position also embraced by most congressional Democrats. Republicans have pressed for continuing the cuts for higher-income families, arguing that a weak economy is no time for a tax increase. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, stoked the debate with comments on June 22 that permanent extension of the middle-class tax cuts may no longer be affordable because of the growing U.S. debt burden. Across the Board Greenspan, in a telephone conversation after his Bloomberg TV interview was taped, said his position is that all the expiring Bush tax cuts should end, for middle-class and high- income families alike. Ending the cuts “probably will” slow growth, Greenspan, 84, said in the TV interview. The risk posed by inaction on the deficit is greater, he said. “Unless we start to come to grips with this long-term outlook, we are going to have major problems,” said Greenspan, who led the U.S. central bank from 1987 to 2006. “I think we misunderstand the momentum of this deficit going forward.” Greenspan said reducing the deficit is “going to be far more difficult than anybody imagines” after “a decade of major increases in federal spending and major tax cuts.” The economic recovery recently has shown signs of slowing with June growth in private payrolls below forecasts at 83,000, and retail sales declining for the second straight month. Federal Reserve officials trimmed their forecast for economic growth during a June meeting, according to minutes released yesterday. The White House budget office projects the federal deficit this year will exceed $1.5 trillion, or 10.6 percent of gross domestic product, and anticipates the deficit five years into the future will remain as high as $751 billion, or 3.9 percent of GDP. Canary in Mine Greenspan has warned for months that the rising federal debt and deficits projected in future years together risk driving up long-term interest rates and choking off capital investment. In a March 26 Bloomberg TV interview, he said an increase in long-term interest rates was a “canary in the mine.” Yields on 10-year Treasury notes have since fallen from 3.85 percent to 2.98 percent at 2:31 p.m. in New York. Bush tax cuts passed in 2001 and 2003 gave middle-income earners a 10 percent rate on couples’ first $14,000 in income; subsidies for college expenses, a higher child-care credit and relief from the marriage penalty. Keeping those and other reductions for the 130 million households earning less than $250,000 would cost about $300 billion a year, according to the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation. In addition to those benefits, high-income households got reduced top marginal rates, elimination of phase-outs for some deductions and personal exemptions, and benefited the most from lower rates on dividends and capital gains. The cost of continuing the tax cuts for the most prosperous Americans would be about $55 billion for one year.
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#1. To: go65 (#0)
Greenspan was a bad appointment Reagan made and probably with assistance from Richard Darman, I hated that SOB. He persuaded Reagan to pass the '85 tax bill with increases, and Reagan admitted it was a mistake, too late it was already law. Actually did a little research before posting and found out he passed away a couple of years ago. No loss, I don't dance on people's graves. If you want to send me a bottle of Jack or Johnnie I will pass it thru my kidneys before I put it on your grave. No offense, it's a joke.
Is it time to take out the trash? Post Date: 2010-07-14 11:48:27 by A K A Stone We know who you mean.
(chuckle) Greenspan obviously wants Owe-bama to be a one term failure.
Obama's first all-by-his-lonesome budget, btw, calls for a $1.17 trillion deficit.
I don't think Greenspan has to worry about the looters turning down more of our money.
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