Say it again!

Bush claims WMD in Iraq. Others disagree with that assessment. Inspection team goes in. Finds nothing. Survey Group leader David Kay said:

"We were almost all wrong."

In 2001 Bush claims unending budget surplus allows for tax cut. Greenspan agrees with surplus forecast. Others disagree with that assessment. Now, when asked about the surpluses, Greenspan said:

"[In early 2001] we were confronted at that time with an almost universal expectation amongst the experts that we were dealing with a very large surplus for which there seemed to be no end."

"It turns out that we were all wrong."

"Just for the record, we were not all wrong, but many people were wrong" - Hillary Clinton at today's Senate subcommittee meeting.

Greenspan knew the surpluses weren't guaranteed since they were partly due to the stock market bubble. At the time of the 2001 tax cuts, there were not a few economists that thought the "surplus argument" was bogus and only used to get the tax cuts.

ALSO IN THE NEWS:

The Fed chairman, however, didn't retract his support for the 2001 tax cut.

"If confronted with the same evidence we had back then, I would recommend exactly what I recommended then," Greenspan said.

Hack.

posted by Quiddity at 3/15/2005 04:09:00 PM