Criticism surprises president

WASHINGTON - President Bush was surprised by the criticism leveled against him and his administration in a new book by former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, the White House said yesterday.

Greenspan accused Bush of failing to responsibly handle the nation's spending and of racking up big budget deficits, saying the president and Congress' former GOP leaders had abandoned the party's conservative principles favoring small government.

"My biggest frustration remained the president's unwillingness to wield his veto against out-of-control spending," Greenspan wrote in The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World, which was released yesterday.

White House press secretary Dana Perino defended Bush's fiscal policies and said veto threats from the president were enough to keep spending from spiraling too high.

Government spending for the fight against terrorism increased under Bush, and Perino said the administration did not apologize for acting on behalf of "the safety and security of the American people."

At the same time, government revenue declined because of a string of tax cuts, which Greenspan also criticized in his book.

"The president was a bit surprised by some of the criticism in the book," Perino said. "Remember, in late 2000, we were headed into a recession and tax cuts were the prescribed remedy. And that has borne out to be one of the best decisions we made in order to keep the economy growing like it is."

Greenspan gave a major boost to Bush's tax-cut plan in testimony before Congress in 2001, arguing then that a reduction in taxes could help the economy deal with sagging growth. A recession that began in March 2001 ended that November. In his book, he said that testimony was a mistake.