Greg Valliere Spending Quotations

One of the big stories coming out of this is the inability to get anything done in the next two years. Therefore ... the budget surplus is going to pile up dramatically because Congress won't agree on big tax cuts or big spending hikes.

I think sometimes after we have this type of party, there is a hangover -- and this comes in '05, ... The new Congress in '05 will make efforts to restrain growth. They may not rescind the tax cuts, but there will be spending restraint. But between now and then, it's just a party.

Even though there's a lot of angst over the budget, a cut of $56 billion over five years, or $40 billion in spending cuts over five years, is pretty mild ? it's almost a rounding error.

The consumer is not on a spending binge - consumer spending has moderated and I don't think there's a compelling case (to raise rates).

The economy is so strong, revenues are coming in at a rate that no one predicted. What it came down to was they had to decide how much more new spending they could add and how much more they could cut taxes.

The key variable here is the consumer. As of now, consumer spending is way down so that may be the most critical thing they'll look at,