An apology due from Krugman (Deficits and Deceit-Published: March 4, 2005),tax cuts do work..<< Oct. 11 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. recorded a budget deficit of $248 billion in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, $48 billion less than the government predicted in August and the narrowest spending gap since 2002.
Revenue increased 12 percent from the previous fiscal year, led by a 27 percent gain in corporate income taxes, the Treasury said today in Washington. Spending rose 7.4 percent to a record $2.65 trillion.
``The economy is improving, and that's happened in part because of the pro-growth tax cuts,'' Rob Portman, director of the Officer of Management and Budget, told CNBC in an interview today before the figures were announced. >>
Deficits and Deceit
By PAUL KRUGMAN
nytimes.com
Four years ago, Alan Greenspan urged Congress to cut taxes, asserting that the federal government was in imminent danger of paying off too much debt.
On Wednesday the Fed chairman warned Congress of the opposite fiscal danger: he asserted that there would be large budget deficits for the foreseeable future, leading to an unsustainable rise in federal debt. But he counseled against reversing the tax cuts, calling instead for cuts in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
Does anyone still take Mr. Greenspan's pose as a nonpartisan font of wisdom seriously?
When Mr. Greenspan made his contorted argument for tax cuts back in 2001, his reputation made it hard for many observers to admit the obvious: he was mainly looking for some way to do the Bush administration a political favor. But there's no reason to be taken in by his equally weak, contorted argument against reversing those cuts today.
Rest is history.... |
