Greenspan did not endorse tax cuts primarily as a way to stimulate the economy in the short-run, as President Bush and some on Capitol Hill have suggested, saying that such timing was difficult.
At the same time, he said, "should current economic weakness spread beyond what now appears likely, having a tax cut in place may, in fact, do noticeable good."
Greenspan's testimony is a marked change from his earlier view that debt reduction was the best use of the growing federal surpluses. Greenspan had been nearly alone among prominent Republicans in his preference for debt reduction over tax cuts. Republicans had openly courted his endorsement for their plans.
Greenspan now believes the long-term growth potential of the economy may be so strong that "sufficient resources will be available to undertake both debt reduction and surplus-lowering policy initiatives."
"Accordingly, the tradeoff faced earlier appears no longer an issue," he said.
Greenspan said allowing the federal debt to approach zero, which is now possible within the decade, could create new challenges for federal policymakers: Namely, what to do with the growing federal assets.
"The federal government should eschew private asset accumulation because it would be exceptionally difficult to insulate the government's investment decisions from political pressures," he said.
One alternative would be to put the surpluses into retirement accounts, either individual accounts as favored by Bush or into a system-wide account as favored by the Democrats.
The central banker did not back off of his endorsement of debt reduction. "A declining level of federal debt is desirable because it holds down long-term real interest rates, thereby lowering the cost of capital and elevating private investment," he said.
"But the sequence of upward revisions to the budget surplus projections for several years now has reshaped the choices and opportunities before us," he said.
Greenspan ended by cautioning Congress not to get carried away with "euphoria surrounding the surpluses."
"It is not hard to imagine the hard-earned fiscal restraint developed in recent years rapidly dissipating," he said, referring to higher government spending. "We need to resist those policies that could readily resurrect the deficits of the past."
Because budget projections are necessarily uncertain, any tax cuts or new outlays should be phased in slowly and perhaps have some mechanism to reverse them in case they lead to deficit spending, he said.
ist ja doch ein alter Fuchs,nur wenn er meint die Ökonomie sei so stark dass sie beides vertrage ,Schuldenreduktion und Steuersenkungen und nichts zu Zinssenkungen sagt,dann seh ich auf keinen Fall eine 50 Punkte Zinssenkung!