Posted on 07/17/2003 4:48:19 AM PDT by RJCogburn
In his first Congressional testimony since he became budget director last month, Joshua B. Bolten asserted today that the $455 billion budget deficit he projected on Tuesday was completely manageable and that President Bush's tax cuts were not the problem but "part of the solution."
"The key to improving the budget outlook is healthy and sustained recovery with strong job creation," he told the House Budget Committee.
"Had Congress not enacted the president's three tax relief packages," Mr. Bolten added, "the economy would be substantially weaker than it is, and there would have been substantially greater job losses."
With statements like that, Mr. Bolten seemed to be saying that reducing taxes actually led to increased revenues for the government, a view prevalent in some conservative circles 20 years ago but basically discredited by economists since then.
But when Representative Richard E. Neal, Democrat of Massachusetts, asked whether Mr. Bolten was saying that the tax cuts "will pay for themselves," the budget director said he was not.
Mr. Bolten went on to say, "I think the art and science of economics has not yet advanced to the stage where we can really properly capture all the positive effects the tax cuts do have on the economy."
On Tuesday, Mr. Bolten, who was deputy chief of staff in the White House before moving to the Office of Management and Budget to replace Mitchell E. Daniels Jr., announced record deficits for this fiscal year and the next and said they were the unavoidable consequence of a faltering economy and the essential response at home and abroad to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Uhh, he kinda forgot about huge domestic spending unrelated to 9/11....education bill, farm bill.....
Well, good thing GWB has been aggressive in using the veto to keep spending under a bit of control, at least....uh, that is, I mean...
"Which you aren't going to get with Spot Crude Oil at 31 dollars a barrel, no matter what you do with interest rates." said a lesser know Free Republic Economist.
Just one more terrorist attack in the U.S. -- anywhere -- and the economy will go down the tube. Does not matter if they blow up downtown Los Angeles or a Wall-Mart in Topeka. Result will be the same.
Just my humble opinion. Feel free to flame away.
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