Greenspan: Reps Traded Principle for Power; Lost Both

NEWS ALERT
from The Wall Street Journal

Sept. 14, 2007

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan says the Republican party to which he has belonged all his life deserved to lose power last year for forsaking its small-government principles. Greenspan delivers the withering critique in his memoir, “The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World.”

In the book, scheduled for public release Monday, Greenspan writes that he advised the White House to veto some bills to curb “out of control” spending while the Republicans controlled Congress. He says President Bush’s failure to do so “was a major mistake.” Republicans in Congress, he writes, “swapped principle for power. They ended up with neither. They deserved to lose.”
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Greenspan Says Bush’s Economics Driven by Politics (Update1)

By Matthew Benjamin

Sept. 14 (Bloomberg) — Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan criticized President George W. Bush for pursuing an economic agenda driven by politics rather than sound policy, with little concern for future consequences.

Soon after Bush took office, Greenspan wrote in a new book, it became evident that the Treasury secretary and White House economists would play secondary roles in decisions on taxes and other issues. In addition, officials with whom he had worked in the administration of President Gerald Ford changed after Bush brought them back to Washington, he said.

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http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aFm7L8vuX_ts