Alan Greenspan: Let The Bush Tax Cuts Lapse

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan was instrumental in convincing Congress to pass the Bush tax cuts in 2001, but now says it’s time to end them. (h/t Greg Sargent)

“They should follow the law and let them lapse,” Greenspan said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Conversations with Judy Woodruff,” citing a need for the tax revenue to reduce the federal budget deficit.

And it’s not just the tax cuts for the rich that Greenspan believes should end.

Greenspan, in a telephone conversation after his Bloomberg TV interview was taped, said his position is that all the expiring Bush tax cuts should end, for middle-class and high- income families alike.

Ending the cuts “probably will” slow growth, Greenspan, 84, said in the TV interview. The risk posed by inaction on the deficit is greater, he said.

“Unless we start to come to grips with this long-term outlook, we are going to have major problems,” said Greenspan, who led the U.S. central bank from 1987 to 2006. “I think we misunderstand the momentum of this deficit going forward.”

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.