Reality_Check© wrote:
> Greenspan: US can't afford McCain-size tax cuts without same
> reduction in federal spending
> By GLEN JOHNSON , Associated Press
>
> September 13, 2008
>
> 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.
> "Obviously he needs to go back to that book and study it some more,"
> Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said during a conference call arranged
> by the campaign of Democratic nominee Barack Obama.
>
> McCaskill said eliminating congressional earmark spending - estimated
> at $17 billion annually - cannot offset McCain's proposed tax cuts.
>
> "That's a huge amount of money, but it's not even a drop in the
> bucket to pay for $3.5 trillion in tax cuts," she said. "So, every
> time he throws up earmarks and he's asked how he's going to pay for
> it, he knows he's being disingenuous, he knows he's not being
> forthcoming."
> McCain campaign officials dispute the $3.3 trillion figure, saying it
> assumes eliminating 2003 tax cuts made by the Bush administration and
> then cutting from that higher level. They say McCain is proposing tax
> cuts worth $600 billion from current levels.
>
> "John McCain opposed President Bush's tax cuts in 2003, because they
> didn't include the necessary spending controls. Sen. McCain's
> proposed job-growing tax cuts are modest in comparison to his plans
> to slow the exploding growth of federal expenditures - meaning that
> contrary to Chairman Greenspan's assertions, this relief isn't
> proposed on borrowed money," said McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds.
>
> While McCain opposed the 2003 cuts and previous Bush administration
> tax cuts from 2001, he now says he would leave them intact. Obama has
> said he would repeal Bush tax cuts benefiting families making over
> $250,000 annually to pay for programs and provide middle-tax class
> relief.
> Meanwhile, organizers of a conservative summit in Washington said
> McCain and his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, missed an
> opportunity by not addressing the gathering. Some 2,100 activists
> from 44 states, plus another 10,000 people who signed up to watch
> online, participated in the three-day Values Voter Summit.
>
> On Saturday, McCain was less than 10 miles away, working in at his
> campaign headquarters in Arlington, Va. Palin was leaving Alaska and
> traveling to a rally in Reno, Nev. Last year, McCain and seven other
> GOP presidential candidates spoke at the summit.
>
> "I think there is some disappointment that he's not here. I think
> there's greater disappointment that Palin is not here," said Tony
> Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, a key sponsor of
> the summit. "I think people would have liked to have heard from her."
>
> Activists attending the summit were unanimous in their enthusiasm for
> Palin, including several who said their support for McCain was
> lukewarm before he selected her.
>
> Gary Ward, pastor of the Rocky Point Church in Stephenville, Texas,
> said he supported former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee for the GOP
> nomination but that his enthusiasm for McCain has been increased by
> his choice of Palin and his recent statement that he believes life
> begins at conception.
> "That was absolutely the right answer," Ward said.
>
> Elizabeth Kish, an administrative assistant from Gainesville, Fla.,
> said she was put off by McCain's record on immigration and was
> considering voting for Libertarian Party candidate Bob Barr until
> Palin's selection.
> "Once he chose Palin that was it for me," said Kish, who was wearing a
> "Pro-Life Pro-Palin" button and another button featuring pictures of
> Chief Justice John Roberts and Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito
> under the slogan, "The Kind of Change I Believe In."