It's Official

Greenspan Urges Social Security Cuts

Remember Alan Greenspan, savior of the American economy, the man who could do no wrong, who engineered the go-go '90s?

Yeah, he's gone. In his place we have Greenspan the political crony, who rather than urging fiscally sound policies (as he did in the '90s, when everyone still thought Democrats would use their power to blow any surplus), advocates whatever will advance the cause of Bush and the far right, which is, ultimately, to shrink the government in any way possible, including the end of Social Security.

Need proof? OK. In 2001, Greenspan urged Congress to pass a tax cut--that would be the Bush giveaway to the rich, the one that has us facing mammoth deficits today and as far as we can project--because he feared that, if we continued to run surpluses, we'd pay off our national debt too soon. Because getting rid of that albatross on the federal budget wouldn't free up money for other things like Social Security, right?

Fast forward to 2004: there's no danger of paying off the debt anytime soon--it's grown by more than a trillion dollars since we last pondered paying any of it down. And we still haven't fixed Social Security. And the tax cuts have had no appreciable impact on improving the American economy. So what does Greenspan say? Oops, I was wrong, we should do away with these tax cuts post haste, because we can't break our promises to the American people who are counting on Social Security, and deficits this big are dangerous to our economic security and solvency? No, that's what an independent economist would say--you can find one and ask. Greenspan, though, calls for cuts in Social Security--the program that impacts everyone--rather than any rollback in the Bush tax cuts--you know, the ones that help the very wealthy VERY disproportionately.

Last I checked, the unelected, nonpartisan chairman of the Federal Reserve isn't supposed to offer blatant political cover to the president. Perhaps it's time for the soon-to-be-78 Greenspan to relinquish his chair to someone younger who is interested in doing the job rather than preaching the neoconservative gospel from the most powerful economic pulpit in the land.