September 24, 2014
Jonathan Chait took a few swipes at Paul Ryan for his budget work and economic forecasts in a piece headlined “Paul Ryan Declares War Against Math.” Most of Chait’s shots are well-deserved, for example he notes Ryan’s claims that the Obama deficits would lead to a surge in inflation and that Obamacare would cause health care costs to soar.
However one of the Chait’s shots is definitely in the cheap seats. He tells readers:
“‘Reality’ [a sarcastic reference to Ryan’s world view] is Ryan’s description for a world in which Bill Clinton’s punishing tax hikes on the rich hindered the economy, which was restored to health when George W. Bush cut taxes.”
Actually in the reality where most of us reside, George W. Bush’s tax cuts almost certainly did provide a boost to the economy. At the time the economy was experiencing a recession due to the collapse of the stock bubble (the cause of the Clinton budget surpluses). The economy desperately needed a source of demand to replace the demand generated by the collapse of the stock bubble. This is a point that is now acknowledged even by Larry Summers, President Clinton’s last Treasury Secretary. The Fed was approaching the zero lower bound with its interest rate policy, as the federal funds rate was lowered to 1.0 percent in the summer of 2002.
This meant that fiscal policy was badly needed to provide a boost to the economy. In that context, the Bush tax cuts were almost certainly a positive for the economy, leading to more consumption and therefore more demand and employment than if there had been no expansionary fiscal policy. Of course the same amount of money would have provided more stimulus if it had gone to support infrastructure, education, or other forms of spending. It would have also given the economy more of a boost if it was less tilted towards those at the top end of the income distribution.
But given a choice between the Bush tax cuts and doing nothing, the Bush tax cuts were almost certainly the better way to go. They may not have been sufficient to offset the damage caused by the collapse of the stock bubble, but they were a step in the right direction.
Note: Jonathan Chait’s name was originally misspelled as “Chiat.”
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