Greenspan: Economy a "financial crisis" and McCain's tax cuts won't help

US in 'once-in-a-century' financial crisis : Greenspan

With the Lehman Bros on the brink of failure, WaMu in trouble, and Merrill Lynch about to be sold to Bank of America due to it's troubles, it's clear the US financial markets are in pretty bad shape. I guess this is what you get after years of reckless de-regulation in the name of the "free markets".

One thing to take note of in Greenspan's statements is his criticism of McCain's proposed tax cuts. Although it should be obvious to anyone that understands the economy and government taxation and spending, proposing huge tax cuts ($3.3 trillion) without equally large reductions in spending will only add to the deficit that we have built up during the Bush years, meaning we will have to continue borrowing from the Chinese and other countries in order to keep the government running. It seems like people are starting to realize how the energy crisis keeps us held hostage to countries like Venezuela, Russia, and others in the Middle East who aren't always our best friends. However, rarely does anyone speak about how our reckless handling of the government's finances is digging us into a deep debt with nations that might use it as leverage over us in the future. McCain's tax cuts for the rich will only continue this trend. He says he will finance the tax cuts by getting rid of the earmarks he seems to obsess over.... but here's the problem... those earmarks make up at a high estimate only about $20 billion a year. Clearly way off the estimated $3.3 trillion of tax cuts McCain proposes.

Big Risk: Surging Debt Makes U.S. More Dependent on China, Russia, Gulf States

He's admitted he doesn't really understand the economy in the past, and now he's proven it. John McCain's "give to the rich" policies will only hurt us taking into account the current state of our economy and the fact that the government, which relies on taxpayer money, is having to bail out financial institutions at an unprecedented rate in order to ensure our economy doesn't fall apart at the seams.

From:

McCain's Fantasy War on Earmarks

"By most definitions of the term, the amount of money spent on earmarks is much lower than the CRS study. The Office for Management and the Budget came up with a figure for $16.9 billion in the 2008 appropriation bills. Taxpayers for Commonsense, an independent watchdog group that focuses on wasteful spending, identified $18.3 billion worth of earmarks in the 2008 bills, a 23 per cent cut from a record $23.6 billion set in 2005."