WP: Greenspan Is Critical Of Bush in New Book - Former Fed Chairman Has Praise for Clinton

[Kadie]

Greenspan Is Critical Of Bush in New Book
Former Fed Chairman Has Praise for Clinton

By Bob Woodward
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 15, 2007; Page A01

Alan Greenspan, who served as Federal Reserve Chairman for 18 years and was the leading Republican economist for the past three decades, levels unusually harsh criticism at President George W. Bush and the Republican Party in his new book, arguing that Bush abandoned the central conservative principle of fiscal restraint.

While condemning Democrats, too, for rampant federal spending, he offers Bill Clinton an exemption. The former president emerges as the political hero of "The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World," Greenspan's 531-page memoir, which is being published Monday.

Greenspan, who had an eight-year alliance with Clinton and Democratic Treasury secretaries in the 1990s, praises Clinton's mind and his tough anti-deficit policies, calling the former president's 1993 economic plan "an act of political courage."

But he expresses deep disappointment with Bush. "My biggest frustration remained the president's unwillingness to wield his veto against out-of-control spending," Greenspan writes. "Not exercising the veto power became a hallmark of the Bush presidency. . . . To my mind, Bush's collaborate-don't-confront approach was a major mistake."

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/14/AR2007091402451.html