MR. GREGORY: All right. Well, Dr. Greenspan, it’s not often that you hear Democrats and liberals quoting you. But, in this case, they did when it come to–came to tax cuts because of an interview you gave recently with Judy Woodruff on Bloomberg television. Here was the question: “Tax cuts [that] are due to expire at the end of this year. Should they be extended? What should Congress do?” You said, “I should say they should follow the law and then let them lapse.” Question: “So to those interests who say but wait a minute, if you let these taxes go my taxes go up, it’s going to depress growth?” You said, “Yes, it probably will, but I think we have no choice in doing that, because we have to recognize there are no solutions which are optimum. These are choices between bad and worse.” You’re saying let them all go, let them all lapse?
MR. GREENSPAN: Look, I’m very much in favor of tax cuts, but not with borrowed money. And the problem that we’ve gotten into in recent years is spending programs with borrowed money, tax cuts with borrowed money, and at the end of the day, that proves disastrous. And my view is I don’t think we can play subtle policy here on it.
And on what has become an article of faith in many sectors of the conservative movement:
MR. GREGORY: You don’t agree with Republican leaders who say tax cuts pay for themselves?
MR. GREENSPAN: They do not.
Well, there you have it... "The rest of the story." again....
God could tell the Republicans that tax cuts do not increase revenue and they wouldn't believe it. They know what they know and facts ain't going to change their mind.
Watching the McLaughlin Group last night and they blame a lot of the housing crisis on Greenspan's free money approach. I agree with them. Too bad Bernanke is making it even worse.
Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, just trade-offs.
