What Use are Campaign Economists?
An irony of modern presidential campaigns is that they bring on board top tier economic advisors, but that doesn’t stop them from injecting economic nonsense into candidate speeches.
Candidate Obama just added some skilled economists, but that didn’t prevent him from making ridiculous claims about recent economic policies in a speech yesterday. Take one Obama statement: “our president sacrificed investments in health care, and education, and energy and infrastructure on the altar of tax breaks for big corporations and wealthy CEOs.” Obama is wrong on every point in this remark.
Here are the facts from the federal budget looking at Bush’s first 7 years in office (FY2001 to FY2008):
- Department of Health and Human Services spending up 67 percent in 7 years of Bush.
- Department of Education spending up 92 percent in 7 years of Bush.
- Department of Energy spending up 42 percent in 7 years of Bush.
- Federal capital investment outlays up 35 percent for nondefense and 131 percent for defense in 7 years of Bush.
- Federal corporate tax revenues up a stunning 128 percent in 7 years of Bush.
All these figures are available to the Obama campaign in the Federal Budget—Historical Tables. There is no reason for Obama and his advisors to make up nonsense statements about supposed spending cuts, when there are plenty actual failed economic policies that Bush could be criticized for.
Filed under: General; Government and Politics; Tax and Budget Policy
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