  http://www.americanprogress.org/ The Class Warrior After supporting tax cuts for the wealthy which have already blown a gaping hole in the federal budget, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan told lawmakers that Congress should extend the cuts indefinitely  at a cost of $1.5 trillion over the next ten years  and pay for it by slashing Social Security. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/26/business/26FED.html?pagewanted=print&position= Greenspan's comments were particularly surprising because our current budget problems are completely unrelated to Social Security. A recent Center on Budget and Policy Priorities study reveals that, in the last three years, the nation's long-term budget projection has gone from a $5 trillion surplus to a $4.3 trillion deficit and tax cuts were the single largest factor behind that decline. http://www.cbpp.org/1-28-04bud.htm The large role of tax cuts in the deficit has been confirmed by the President's own budget analysis.
Social Security, meanwhile, continues to run a surplus. Greenspan's recommendation amounts to a huge transfer of wealth from future retirees to the very rich. http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0203/021203bb.htm The President, for his part, dodged a direct question yesterday about whether he believes, as Greenspan does, we should scale back Social Security to deal with the rising budget deficit, saying he needed to "see exactly what [Greenspan] said. " http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/02/20040225-1.html 
