Greenspan: No McCain tax cuts without reduction

hrdman2luv · 09-13-08, 09:48 PM

WASHINGTON – Alan Greenspan says the country can't afford tax cuts of the magnitude proposed by Republican presidential contender John McCain — at least not without a corresponding reduction in government spending.

"Unless we cut spending, no," the former Federal Reserve chairman said Friday when asked about McCain's proposed tax cuts, pegged in some estimates at $3.3 trillion.

"I'm not in favor of financing tax cuts with borrowed money," Greenspan said during an interview with Bloomberg Television. "I always have tied tax cuts to spending."

McCain has said that he would offset his proposed cuts — including reducing the corporate tax rate and eliminating the Alternative Minimum Tax that has plagued middle-class families — by ending congressional pork-barrel spending, unnecessary government programs and overhauling entitlement programs such as Medicare and Social Security.

Democrats pounced on Greenspan's comments, in part because McCain professed last year that he was weaker on economics than foreign affairs and was reading Greenspan's memoir, "The Age of Turbulence," to educate himself.

Full Article Here:

I'd just like to say that Ron Paul "told you so"

DarkWizard12 · 09-13-08, 09:54 PM

Greenspan obviously didn't know McCain WAS already going to offset those tax cuts, as said in the article.

Kandahar · 09-13-08, 10:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DarkWizard12

Greenspan obviously didn't know McCain WAS already going to offset those tax cuts, as said in the article.

Eliminating earmarks comes absolutely nowhere close to balancing the budget, and to suggest it does is dishonest.

MC.no.spin · 09-13-08, 10:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kandahar

Eliminating earmarks comes absolutely nowhere close to balancing the budget, and to suggest it does is dishonest.

McCain has said he will do everything Greenspan is saying here.

Quote:

Reforming Washington to Regain the Trust of Taxpayers
Bring The Budget
To Balance By 2013

John McCain will balance the budget by the end of his first term. The near-term path to balance is built on three principles:

* Reasonable economic growth. Growth is an imperative - historically the greatest success in reducing deficits (late 1980s; late 1990s) took place in the context of economic growth.

* Comprehensive spending controls. Bringing the budget to balance will require across-the-board scrutiny of spending and making tough choices on new spending proposals.

* Bi-partisanship in budget efforts. Much as the late 1990s witnessed bipartisan efforts to put the fiscal house in order, bi-partisan efforts will be the key to undoing the recent spending binge.

In the long-term, the only way to keep the budget balanced is successful reform of the large spending pressures in Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

McCain Policies Will Support Reasonable Economic Growth: Small business is the key to job growth. Small business will benefit from:

* Low individual tax rates - sole-proprietorships, partnerships, landlords and others are taxed under the individual income tax.

* Access to capital from low tax rates on dividends and capital gains.

* Minimizing expensive mandates - such as those for health insurance and pro-union initiatives like card check.

* Enhancing international competitiveness to keep jobs here; not abroad.
o A lower corporate tax rate.

o Improved investment and research incentives to ensure that workers have the most modern technology.

o Bringing the budget to balance, reducing federal borrowing, and controlling spending to reduce the burden on the economy.

Comprehensive Spending Controls: John McCain will institute broad reforms to control spending:

* The McCain administration would reserve all savings from victory in the Iraq and Afghanistan operations in the fight against Islamic extremists for reducing the deficit. Since all their costs were financed with deficit spending, all their savings must go to deficit reduction.

* A one-year spending pause. Freeze non-defense, non-veterans discretionary spending for a year and use those savings for deficit reduction. A one-year pause in the growth of discretionary spending will be imposed to allow for a comprehensive review of all spending programs. After the completion of a comprehensive review of all programs, projects and activities of the federal government, we will propose a plan to modernize, streamline, consolidate, reprioritize and, where needed, terminate individual programs.

* Take back earmark funds. The McCain Administration will reclaim billions of add-on spending from earmarks and add-ons in FY 2007 and 2008.

Bi-partisan Fiscal Discipline: A McCain Administration will provide the leadership to achieve bipartisan spending restraint equivalent to that in the 1997 Balanced Budget Agreement between a GOP Congress and a Democratic President. In 1997, President Clinton and the GOP Congress agreed to balance the budget by restraining the growth in spending and cutting taxes over a ten-year period.

* With the same bipartisan effort today, with the federal budget that is now 70 percent larger, we could keep taxes low and still balance the budget by holding overall spending growth to 2.4 percent. Unlike Congress and the Executive branch in recent years, a McCain Administration will enforce the spending restraint to balance the budget and keep it balanced.

* A McCain Administration would perform a comprehensive review of all programs, projects and activities of the federal government, and then propose a plan to modernize, streamline, consolidate, reprioritize and, where needed, terminate individual programs. McCain could use the bi-partisan commission structure used for the Defense Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC). Such a commission could be required to report to the President who would then submit the recommendations to the Congress for a straight up or down vote.

* A McCain Administration will review all special spending provisions to end subsidies to high-income individuals and corporations

Eliminating Wasteful Spending

Stop Earmarks, Pork-Barrel Spending, And Waste: John McCain will veto every pork-laden spending bill and make their authors famous. As President, he will seek the line-item veto to reduce waste and eliminate earmarks that have led to corruption. Earmarks restrict America's ability to address genuine national priorities and interfere with fair, competitive markets.

Leadership, Courage And Choices: Reducing spending means making choices. John McCain will provide the courageous leadership necessary to control spending, including:

* Eliminate broken government programs. The federal government itself admits that one in five programs do not perform.

* Reform our civil service system to promote accountability and good performance in our federal workforce.

* Reform procurement programs and cut wasteful spending in defense and non-defense programs.

Reforming Entitlement Programs For The 21st Century
Reform Social Security: John McCain will fight to save the future of Social Security, and he believes that we may meet our obligations to the retirees of today and the future without raising taxes. John McCain supports supplementing the current Social Security system with personal accounts - but not as a substitute for addressing benefit promises that cannot be kept. John McCain will reach across the aisle to address these challenges, but if the Democrats do not act, he will. No problem is in more need of honesty than the looming financial challenges of entitlement programs. Americans have the right to know the truth and John McCain will not leave office without fixing the problems that threatens our future prosperity and power.

Control Medicare Growth: The growth of spending on Medicare threatens our fiscal future. John McCain has proposed comprehensive health care reforms that will reduce the growth in Medicare spending, improve the quality of care, protect seniors against rising Medicare premium payments, and preserve the advancements in medical science central to providing quality care.

JohnMcCain.com - McCain-Palin 2008

Goldenboy219 · 09-13-08, 10:52 PM

If that's his plan, it would not matter if Ronald Regan rose from the grave to become his VP, he is going to lose...

MC.no.spin · 09-13-08, 10:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Goldenboy219

If that's his plan, it would not matter if Ronald Regan rose from the grave to become his VP, he is going to lose...

Why do you say that?

hrdman2luv · 09-13-08, 11:10 PM

Thats his plan? No wonder he admitted that he wasn't experienced in economics.

Why in the world is any real conservative supporting this guy? I hate to say this, but Bush was right in 1999, when he made it known that John McCain wasn't mentally fit to be the president....

Hey John, How about the trillion $$$ we waste on our foreign policy? How about the $7 billion we waste on houseing, feeding and caring for the 200,000+ illegals in our prison system? How about the welfare that we give to the illegals.

How about ending the Dept. of Education, Dept. of Homeland Seurity, Dept of Transportation, Energy, and the many other dept's that we pay for but don't get anything from. You know, that used to be the Conservative way. And it used to work.

John McCain wants to scrutinize Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid? Why don't he just send all the old and disabled people to Iraq.....Oh wait..McCain has a 100% disability from the military........

Iriemon · 09-13-08, 11:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DarkWizard12

Greenspan obviously didn't know McCain WAS already going to offset those tax cuts, as said in the article.

You think McCain is going to cut SS in half?

Iriemon · 09-13-08, 11:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MC.no.spin

McCain has said he will do everything Greenspan is saying here.

JohnMcCain.com - McCain-Palin 2008

McCain would have to cut $500 billion a year in spending now to balance the budget, and that is without further tax cuts. All he talks about is vague long term reforms. We hear that from every Republican presidential candidate, who then goes in, slashes taxes, runs up trillions of debts, and spends more, much less cuts spending.

The blather is nice, where exactly is he going to cut $500+ billion dollars?

How about a program that cuts taxes only after spending has been slashed?

MC.no.spin · 09-13-08, 11:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Iriemon

How about a program that cuts taxes only after spending has been slashed?

Agreed. No problem.