Word: bigs
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...make a pivotal choice: whether to move forward with a sound strategy that led us to this point, or to return to the reckless policies that threw our nation into stagnation and economic decline," boomed the president on Thursday. That last part, of course, is a canard. The last big tax cut was the Reagan mammoth of 1981, and though it did plunge the budget into $200 billion deficits, it also pulled the economy out of stagnation and economic decline, and laid the foundation for the '90s boom that today is paying those deficits...
...right about the "sound strategy." And Greenspan knows it, and you get the feeling that eight years ago, the GOP would have known it too. The tax cut is too damn big. It?s supposed to differentiate the Republicans from the Clintoncrats, and it certainly does. The problem is that all those years of rightward, ho! has left Clinton as the fiscal conservative (with a Reagan-appointed Fed chairman on his side) and Republicans as the fiscal profligates. The boomers already got their money in 1981; now that they?ve got leftovers, they want to squirrel some of it away...
...Greenspan, who looks like he enjoys answering politicians? oafishly loaded questions about as much as he likes tipping his hand on interest rates, did throw his party fellows a few tidbits: Even a big tax cut, properly phased in, wouldn?t spark inflation. And it certainly would be preferable to frittering it away on new spending programs. But give Big Al his druthers, and he?d rather pay down the debt. It isn?t surprising that the Fed Chairman, whose speeches are the economic equivalent of Rorshach tests, left both sides with enough soundbites to claim his support...
...Republicans are betting the next Congress on a showdown with Bill Clinton over tax cuts. The challenge will be getting to the big game in one piece. As the GOP leadership gets ready to stampede a massive cut through the Senate this week, they?ll be stepping on the toes of not only the White House and the majority of economists, but some moderate members of their own party ? just like the House leadership did last week. Rhode Island Republican John Chafee is leading a handful of fellow moderates and Democrats who want to split the tax-cut difference between...
...meantime, it looks more and more like the GOP leaders against the world. From the White House (Al Gore stopped by late Tuesday to trash the bill for neglecting Medicare) to the polls, the appetite for a cut that big just isn?t there right now. Even fellow Republican and economic icon Alan Greenspan is in on the finger-wagging. In testimony before the Senate Banking Committee Tuesday, the Fed chairman more or less repeated what he told the House last week: In this time of economic plenty, tax cuts aren?t bad, but debt repayment ?- and preparing for boomers...