In Policy Change, Greenspan Backs a Broad Tax Cut But Mr. Greenspan passed up an opportunity to endorse Mr. Bush's proposal specifically. And while he did not say how big a tax reduction would be appropriate, he suggested that he was sympathetic to the concern expressed by many Democrats that a stampede to cut taxes could come back to haunt the nation if the surplus falls short of expectations. Surplus projections are little more than educated guesswork, he said, and Congress should view them with some skepticism, at least until economists have a better understanding of why the economy has been generating far more tax revenue than expected in recent years. Analysts have been grappling in particular with how much of the surge in tax revenue came from the run-up in stock prices in the late 1990's and what would happen if the market remained flat or fell in coming years. "With today's euphoria surrounding the surpluses, it is not difficult to imagine the hard-earned fiscal restraint developed in recent years rapidly dissipating," Mr. Greenspan said. "We need to resist those policies that could readily resurrect the deficits of the past and the fiscal imbalances that followed in their wake." http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/26/business/26TAX.html?pagewanted=all