Post by Swamp Gas on Feb 17, 2004 10:03:08 GMT -5
Cut Social Security To
Keep Tax Cuts for the Rich - Greenspan
By Martin Crutsinger
Associated Press
2-16-4
WASHINGTON (AP) --
Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said Thursday that Congress
should make President Bush's tax cuts permanent and cover the $1
trillion price
" by trimming future benefits in Social Security and other entitlement
programs. "
Greenspan was asked how he would come up with the decade-long cost of $1
trillion to pay for extending the 2001 and 2003 individual tax cuts. "I
would argue strenuously that it should be taken out on the expenditure
side," he answered.
<br>Greenspan, chairman of a commission that recommended solutions to a
Social Security funding crisis in 1983, said he has felt for a long time
that the promised program benefits greatly outweighed the government's
ability to pay for them.
<br>He recommended two items for study in terms of trimming benefits:
linking the retirement age to the population's longer life spans and
tying annual cost of living benefits in Social Security to a
less-generous inflation index than the Consumer Price Index.
<br>Greenspan came out in support of the administration on the idea of
permanent tax cuts, even in the face of deficits estimated to reach a
record $521 billion this year.
<br>At a critical point three years ago, the Fed chairman also endorsed the
president's first tax cut, at a price of $1.35 trillion, as a good way
to handle surpluses that were then projected to total $5.6 trillion over
the next decade.
<br>Copyright 1999 - 2004 - The Buffalo News
<br>http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20040213/1031952.asp
Keep Tax Cuts for the Rich - Greenspan
By Martin Crutsinger
Associated Press
2-16-4
WASHINGTON (AP) --
Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said Thursday that Congress
should make President Bush's tax cuts permanent and cover the $1
trillion price
" by trimming future benefits in Social Security and other entitlement
programs. "
Greenspan was asked how he would come up with the decade-long cost of $1
trillion to pay for extending the 2001 and 2003 individual tax cuts. "I
would argue strenuously that it should be taken out on the expenditure
side," he answered.
<br>Greenspan, chairman of a commission that recommended solutions to a
Social Security funding crisis in 1983, said he has felt for a long time
that the promised program benefits greatly outweighed the government's
ability to pay for them.
<br>He recommended two items for study in terms of trimming benefits:
linking the retirement age to the population's longer life spans and
tying annual cost of living benefits in Social Security to a
less-generous inflation index than the Consumer Price Index.
<br>Greenspan came out in support of the administration on the idea of
permanent tax cuts, even in the face of deficits estimated to reach a
record $521 billion this year.
<br>At a critical point three years ago, the Fed chairman also endorsed the
president's first tax cut, at a price of $1.35 trillion, as a good way
to handle surpluses that were then projected to total $5.6 trillion over
the next decade.
<br>Copyright 1999 - 2004 - The Buffalo News
<br>http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20040213/1031952.asp