Memo to Jeb: You can run from W all you want, but you can’t hide from your record.
From Politico’s Florida Playbook:
Overall, bottom-line budget spending increased nearly 46 percent in his eight years in office, growing from nearly $48.9 billion to about $71.3 billion. The state’s debt increased as well (in part due to voter-approved environmental and class-size reductions measures)….
‘BIG GOVERNMENT REPUBLICAN?’ – “Fiscal Policy Report Card on America’s Governors: 2006,” by Cato’s Stephen Slivinski: “Real per capita general fund spending has grown an annual average of 5 percent over the past two years, making Bush one of the biggest spending Republican governors in this report card. Bush is seen by many as an attractive candidate for higher office. He certainly has a solid record on taxes. But the one glaring question that his second-term budget record has produced is whether he’s turned into a big government Republican.”
From MSNBC’s Maddow Blog:
The former governor added, in reference to his brother, “I think he could have used the veto power, he didn’t have line item veto power, but he could have brought budget discipline to Washington, DC. Now, that seems kind of quaint right now given the fact that after he left, budget deficits and spending just went up astronomically, but having constraints on spending across the board during this time would have been a good thing.”
It’s important to note that when it comes to the fiscal details, Jeb Bush is badly confused. After George W. Bush left office, budget deficits got smaller, not bigger, and federal spending has increased slower, not faster. The fact that Jeb Bush has the entire picture completely backwards is a little unsettling – these are supposed to be basic details that a credible national candidate understands.
There’s also the fact that during Bush’s tenure in Florida, he didn’t seem to mind federal spending – the Sunshine State, home to many seniors who enjoy Medicare and Social Security benefits, received more money from Washington than any other state.
Published: May 22, 2015