■"Greenspan Says Federal Budget Deficits Are 'Unsustainable,'" by Edmund L. Andrews, New York Times, 3 March 2005, pulled off web.
This is Greenspan's basic message:
"When you begin to do the arithmetic of what the rising debt level implied by the deficits tells you, and you add interest costs to that ever-rising debt, at ever-higher interest rates, the system becomes fiscally destabilizing," he told lawmakers. "Unless we do something to ameliorate it in a very significant manner," he added, "we will be in a state of stagnation."
With deficits soaring since 9/11, this administration has pushed up the federal debt from $3.4 trillion to $4.3, or an increase of 26% in just three years. There is unlikely to be any serious deficit-reduction in coming years in terms of budgetary cuts. Our aging population simply makes that impossible. The bigger danger right now, is the almost $2 trillion added to the debt over the next decade if we keep the Bush tax cuts. They were crazy then, they will be crazier in the future. You can't combine any aging population with aging public infrastructure and a Global War on Terrorism with a tax cut. That isn't fiscal responsibility, and I don't care what excuses or rationales the Bush White House offers. That level of deficit spending is a serious threat to our national security in coming years. Saving some bucks now will put lives at risk later on.
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