Even Bush’s Economists Have a Hard Time Writing About His Economic Legacy
January 17th, 2009 . by economistmom
President Bush’s final Economic Report of the President came out yesterday. It’s produced by the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, pictured above. I thought to myself, “yeah, they obviously have reason to look so gloomy,” but it turns out that photo is from the signing of last year’s report–suggesting they already knew a year ago that the 2008 economy, and writing the last Bush economic report, wouldn’t be so fun. As I read it, I find it quite a contrast to the final Clinton Administration Economic Report. It should have been a “legacy” report, but even the crown jewel of Bush economic policy, the Bush tax cuts, get a mainly pedantic discussion in chapter 5 of the report. There’s no quantitative evidence of the positive economic results from the tax cuts other than the magnitude of the cuts and the relief provided; the discussion mostly sounds forward-looking and “in theory” (rather than “in practice”) and makes you wonder why readers should believe that permanently extending these tax cuts is such a great idea.
