Treasury Secretary Nominee Favors Permanent Tax Cuts
By Joel Havemann, Times Staff Writer
June 27, 2006
WASHINGTON -- Henry M. Paulson Jr., President Bush's nominee to be Treasury secretary, told his confirmation hearing today that he favored making Bush's temporary tax cuts permanent and opposed legislation to increase taxes.
At the same time, Paulson said it was important to reduce the government's budget deficit.
Paulson, chairman of the Goldman Sachs investment house, was welcomed with open arms by members of both parties of the Senate Finance Committee. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), calling Paulson "a thoughtful, dedicated and renowned financial leader," urged his confirmation by the Senate this week.
While Paulson was before the Finance Committee, Bush was telling the Manhattan Institute, a friendly think tank, that the budget should be moved toward balance by spending cuts, not tax increases....
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Paulson took the same line at his confirmation hearing. He said he watched from Goldman Sachs as the Bush tax cuts pulled the economy out of its 2001 recession following the bursting of the high-tech stock price "bubble." Tax cuts may not pay for themselves, he said, but they change taxpayer behavior for the better. The result, he said, is a stronger economy, one on which it will be possible to deal with the federal deficit....
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-062706paulson,0,2008918.story?coll=la-home-nation