The Moose wonders what planet the Fed Chairman has been living on the past four years. Adding insult to injury, our interplanetary traveler also endorsed social security privatization that would entail transition costs which would further balloon the debt. Perhaps, Mr. Greenspan lives on Planet Bushie. The Moose awards Senator Reid a hearty "Bully!" for breaking Beltway etiquette and offering the chief economic alien some straight talk, "We had a $7 trillion-dollar surplus when Bush took office. Now we have a $3 or $4 trillion-dollar deficit. That's, in fact, what Greenspan should be telling people." Then, Harry Skywalker brought Darth Vader back to earth with this choice comment, "I think he's one of the biggest political hacks we have in Washington." Senator Reid, live long and prosper! Now, Starship Commander Greenspan would like to boldly go where no other Fed Chairman has gone before by endorsing a backdoor consumption tax so his wealthy cronies can further shelter their riches. It is very clear that in his dotage, Greenspan is returning to his cultish, objectivist Ayn Rand roots. Perhaps, he is now lives on Planet Atlas Shrugged. Beam me up, Scotty!
Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan descended from the heavens this week to inform us lowly earthlings that we face a deficit crisis. Who would have thunk it? But, in his infinite wisdom, the man who knows all told Congress,
"Unless we do something to ameliorate" rising debt levels, he told the House Budget Committee on Wednesday, "we will be in a state of stagnation."
This is from the man who has granted his blessing on the very tax cuts tilted toward the wealthy that has created this debt mess. Perhaps Mr. Greenspan has been residing on Planet Chutzpah!
The Fed Chair has jumped the shark. His tenure as the gray eminence is over, kaput. Maybe, he doesn't receive cable in his part of the universe, but the nation has been at war at the same time the Administration has been on a tax cutting and spending binge.
Paul Krugman has it right this morning,
"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."
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