He testified that it is important to run surpluses to pay down the debt, but that surpluses must not be so large that the government winds up owning American industry. He also testified that tax cuts are better than spending increases to keep surpluses from growing too large, but that uncertainty is enormous, so that any tax cuts should be canceled if they threatened to bring us back to an age of deficits.
格林斯潘还对2001年初的错误认罪。他以为自己就政府预算问题在国会所作的证词是合适的。他作证说利用盈余偿还债务是重要的。但财政盈余的规模不能大到使政府最终掌控美国的工业。他还作证说减税比提高支出更能将盈余控制在一定的规模，但同时它也有相当的不确定性，因此任何有可能使我们重回财政赤字时代的减税政策都应该取消。