Quote:
Originally Posted by gmb92";p="
Forgot the link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/14/bu...rssnyt&emc=rss
Quote:
|
Though he publicly disagreed with Mr. Bush’s supply-side approach to tax cuts, urging Congress to offset the cost with savings elsewhere, he refrained from public criticism that could have shifted the debate. His willingness to criticize now, 18 months after leaving office, may open him to the accusation of failing to speak out when it could have affected policy.
|
Essentially, if you can't cut spending to offset revenues lost in a tax cut, don't cut taxes. Doing one without the other is irresponsible. The reason Republican Greenspan praises Clinton is that he took a huge fiscal mess and helped create a budget surplus through sound fiscal policy, starting with the 1993 Deficit Reduction Act.
He also re-iterates Paul O'Neill's issues with the ideologues.
Quote:
|
“My friend,” he writes of Mr. O’Neill, “soon found himself to be the odd man out; much to my disappointment, economic policy making in the Bush administration remained firmly in the hands of the White House staff.”
|
Former Treasury Secretary O'Neill criticized the Bush tax cuts on similar grounds:
Quote:
”It was not just about not wanting the tax cut. It was about how to use the nation's resources to improve the condition of our society,” says O’Neill. “And I thought the weight of working on Social Security and fundamental tax reform was a lot more important than a tax reduction.”
Did he think it was irresponsible? “Well, it's for sure not what I would have done,” says O’Neill.
The former treasury secretary accuses Vice President Dick Cheney of not being an honest broker, but, with a handful of others, part of "a praetorian guard that encircled the president" to block out contrary views. "This is the way Dick likes it," says O’Neill.
|
http://www.informationclearinghouse....rticle5510.htm |
You said...."Essentially, if you can't cut spending to offset revenues lost in a tax cut, don't cut taxes."
Wrong. Instead of losing revenue, cutting taxes actually INCREASED revenues.
"
Revenue collections hit record high in April
Government spending also at an all-time high"
Updated: 5:06 p.m. CT May 10, 2007
WASHINGTON - Federal revenue collections hit an all-time high in April, contributing to a further improvement in the budget deficit for the year.
Releasing its monthly budget report, the Treasury Department said Thursday that through the first seven months of this budget year, the deficit totals $80.8 billion, significantly below the $184.1 billion imbalance run up during the first seven months of the 2006 budget year."
"White House Budget Director Rob Portman said the surge in tax revenues over the past two years was directly related to the economic rebound spurred by the Bush tax cuts. He said Congress should reject efforts to roll back the tax relief.
“With strong economic growth and spending restraint, we can continue to reduce budget deficits and balance the budget as the president has proposed,” Portman said in a statement.
For April, revenue receipts totaled $383.64 billion while spending totaled $205.97 billion, leaving a surplus for the month of $177.7 billion."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18595849/