July 19, 2010, 1:45 pm
The Bush Deficit Bamboozle
OK, even by contemporary standards, this is rich: the official Republican stance is now apparently that Bush left behind a budget that was in pretty good shape. Mitch McConnell:
The last year of the Bush administration, the deficit as a percentage of gross domestic product was 3.2 percent, well within the range of what most economists think is manageable. A year and a half later, it’s almost 10 percent.
They really do think that we’re idiots.
So, that 3.2 percent number comes from here (pdf). Where’s the bamboozle? Let me count the ways.
First, they’re hoping that you won’t know that standard budget data is presented for fiscal years, which start on October 1 of the previous calendar year. So this isn’t the “last year of the Bush administration” — they’ve conveniently lopped off everything that happened post-Lehman — TARP and all.
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Read the rest here:
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Economics and Politics - Paul Krugman Blog - NYTimes.com:
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