GREENSPAN WARNS ON DEFICITS

By Neal Boortz

Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan was up on the Hill yesterday testifying in front of the Senate Budget Committee. In his remarks, he voiced his concern about the budget deficit. For those of you in or out of government schools, the budget deficit is the amount of money the United States overspends every year.

At any rate, Greenspan is concerned. He says if the deficits go unchecked, they "would cause the economy to stagnate or worse." The Fed Chief also said "The federal budget is on an unsustainable path, in which large deficits result in rising interest rates and ever-growing interest payments that augment deficits in future years." So now we know the problem....but what is ths solution?

Greenspan's remarks will be used to advocate raising taxes. Naturally, since we have a deficit, we need to get the money from some place. Right? Wrong. The entire problem with the deficit has nothing to do with taxation. The problem is excessive government spending. Think of it in terms of your family...if you spend more money than you take in, what do you do? You cut spending. But you're not the government.

Politicians in both parties...and Republicans in particular, love to spend money. The size of the federal government has doubled in the last 10 years under Republican Congressional control. President Bush is the biggest spender in the history of the Oval Office. Spending is being increased, not cut. And it's not likely to ever happen. The Democrats like to tax and spend, the Republicans like to borrow and spend.

By the way, there is a way out of this. If we ditched the income tax altogether and instituted the FairTax, revenues would likely increase because the economy would be unshackled and no one could avoid paying it.