Stupid Budget Tricks
Not only is the Obama administration’s decision to end Bush-era dumb budget gimmicks that made the deficit seem smaller than it really was a good idea, I also think it’s a political no-brainer. For one thing, you’ll get some points from someone for being honest. For another thing, I never really understood what the Bush Gang thought it was accomplishing with this stuff. It served to antagonize the tiny minority of people who care about long-run budget projections and impress . . . who, exactly? People, it seems, who don’t care enough about long-run budget projections to unravel the trivially obvious gimmicks they were using. But why do you care what those people think?
In a lot of ways, the Bush administration always struck me as a group of people who were just so impressed with their own shamelessness and dishonesty that they wildly exaggerated the extent to which lying about stuff is a useful governing tool. They loved the game, they loved the gamesmanship, they held the public in contempt, experts in more contempt, and the press in even more contempt, and so they just went and did it.
33 Responses to “Stupid Budget Tricks”
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February 20th, 2009 at 5:19 pm
“I never really understood what the Bush Gang thought it was accomplishing with this stuff.”
Well, it made the deficit look smaller so Republicans could be less embarrassed by their economic performance. Plus, they could blame the deficit on the cost of the wars, despite the fact that those costs weren’t included in the budget. Few people caught that, even in the blogosphere. The MSM certainly didn’t catch that trick.
February 20th, 2009 at 5:20 pm
That pretty much nails it. In any case, it’s certainly the impression I got as well.
February 20th, 2009 at 5:22 pm
And nowhere was this plainer than when Bush let Cheney attack the CIA which had put Bush Sr. in the White House. This is what made Bush Sr. break down and sob when he thought about Bush Jr in the WH.
All the shrub had to do was let the CIA keep working the magic that had made his dad a President, and things would have been fine. And Bush Jr was too dumb to understand that.
Sometimes history just gets totally awesome.
February 20th, 2009 at 5:23 pm
To be clear, my #2 is @MY, not @fostert. I agree with MY that the political utility of fudging numbers is easy to overstate. It sounds crazy, but I really think that certain people in the Bush administration came to see spin and stonewalling as ends in themselves.
February 20th, 2009 at 5:24 pm
Plus, this move guarantees that internet-based fact checkers will have work from now to eternity sorting out all the dishonest arguments that will be made by comparing old numbers to new ones.
Full employment economy for bloggers!
February 20th, 2009 at 6:24 pm
Matt, you’ve been “nailing it” alot lately! Your last paragraph is just such a great summary I feel like it immortalizes the legacy of the Bush Admin in just a single paragraph:
(In a lot of ways, the Bush administration always struck me as a group of people who were just so impressed with their own shamelessness and dishonesty that they wildly exaggerated the extent to which lying about stuff is a useful governing tool. They loved the game, they loved the gamesmanship, they held the public in contempt, experts in more contempt, and the press in even more contempt, and so they just went and did it.)
February 20th, 2009 at 6:45 pm
I agree with D Fletcher.
A feeling of deep contempt for others, but esp. the American people and the press, seems to have driven about 99% of what the Bush administration did.
February 20th, 2009 at 7:00 pm
Mark Twain advised honesty on the grounds that you’ll please most people and astonish everybody.
February 20th, 2009 at 7:02 pm
Not to trivalize any of this, but anyone else seeing shades of Tommy Carcetti?
February 20th, 2009 at 7:12 pm
Matt: “It served to antagonize the tiny minority of people who care about long-run budget projections”
Yes, but that tiny minority wouldn’t vote Republican anyway, so where is the downside?
February 20th, 2009 at 7:37 pm
and the press in even more contempt
To be fair, this is a perfectly legitimate attitude.
February 20th, 2009 at 8:04 pm
A lot of Bush policies worked like this. For example, what was the point of torturing prisoners, other than the shear pleasure of it?
February 20th, 2009 at 9:15 pm
John Cole also had a great point, how long until the right wing echo chamber starts claiming Obama increased the deficit and using the new real numbers for him compared to the old phony numbers for Bush?
I say the over under is next week
February 20th, 2009 at 9:18 pm
This is a good thing by Obama.
But to be clear this is about budget *projections*; the stats on what the deficits actually turned out to be are not juked. (then tend to be finalized about a full year after the fact). So we know with relative certainty what all the Bush era deficits were except FY 08 (figures still being tallied and audited) and FY 09 (still in progress; 3.5 months of it will be Bush, the rest Obama)
And only half the stuff mentioned in the NYT article was “Bush Era” stuff – the (prolonged) wars and the Medicare lowball – but the rest as the NYT mentioned each Congress and President has been complicit for the last few decades.
February 20th, 2009 at 9:31 pm
How does this relate to the fact that there were many many items in the stimulus that should have instead been budget items and in there instead? (many of the Dept/Agency/Program specific things are not job-creating, and seem to be needed on the budget level as part of regular operations — at least to me)
February 20th, 2009 at 9:37 pm
The MSM will likely use Bush’s fudged numbers against any honest ones.
February 20th, 2009 at 9:56 pm
“They loved the game, they loved the gamesmanship, they held the public in contempt, experts in more contempt, and the press in even more contempt, and so they just went and did it.”
Yes, but the public kept electing them, there were plenty enough experts willing to carry water for them, and the press. . . well. Why wouldn’t the administration feel comtempt for people and institutions whom they crassly manipulated and still kept coming back and giving them everything they wanted? Wouldn’t you find someone whom you use shamelessly but who continues to grovel and give to you and support you with barely a complaint a thouroughly disgusting sucker?
February 21st, 2009 at 7:56 am
Where was the protest about “generational theft” when Bush was running up hidden additions to the national debt in this way? Why wasn’t John McCain bellowing hysterically about this?
February 21st, 2009 at 9:12 am
What they really need to do know is go back and re-run the old numbers under the new rules, so that those who care about the truth can get a sense of what was really happening over the last 30-odd years. Lots of people actively don’t care, but those who do need to be encouraged.
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April 4th, 2009 at 5:14 am
Well I can certainly tell this site is full of Democrats.
I have never considered myself a Democrat, Republican or Independent before this election when it seemed everyone had to be something. But why? I read ALL your comments and they were all so negative and so harsh against the past administration, but yet Bush won a 2nd term. Now don’t give me what I heard when I have said this to others that it was a bought election, fixed etc, etc, etc… Really, can we really believe in our world of people and technology that by now someone involved with counting those votes hasn’t spilled the beans and been paid for it yet. I REALLY DON’T THINK SO, SO THEY MUST HAVE GOTTEN IT RIGHT OR WE WOULD KNOW BY NOW.
–My point is some of us had to vote for him! Yes, I was one of them. Please no negative comments my way, it is my Constitutional Right to vote the way I want in every election..And your right to vote the way you chose.
Now back to your comments… I understand people have strong convictions, I’m with you guys who said how about looking back a few decades to see where the real problems started. They have shown us the treasury debt charts until we can’t stand to see them any longer and it is very clear that our money issues started a very long time ago. Not with either Bush or Clinton or Reagan even.
We certainly NEVER have climbed back out of the hole AFTER 9/11 when the market really fell and was actually closed. It never has risen above the break even mark since then so do you really blame Bush for ALL the financial ills or the people who killed over 3000 people. Seriously, what would you have said about him had he not gone after someone for taking that many innocent American lives. I don’t agree with every decision that was made with Iraq and Afghanistan, but I sure as hell am glad someone had the BALLS to finally say “YOUR ASS IS OURS THIS TIME!” Some people say it wasn’t Iraq so why did we go there, from what was being said they had WMD and who are we to say what President Bush was being told. WE WEREN’T there… So we really don’t know who said or didn’t say what to him and when or where. We do know that no matter how many groups of peace keeping/Red Cross groups that everyone sent in to search and help in Iraq, they were being held back, lead away from where they wanted to go and not being allowed to help the people they needed to help.
AND… WHAT IF THERE HAD BEEN WMD AND PRESIDENT BUSH DIDN’T ACT ON IT? WOULD PEOPLE STILL BE CRITICAL OF HIS ACTIONS OR WOULD HE NOW BE THE HERO THAT PEOPLE ARE TRYING TO MAKE OBAMA TO BE? I’m serious, think about it.
You all keep saying things like Bush didn’t include the military spending in the budget and talk as if he was the only person running the government for 8 years. This makes me laugh I have to admit. Have any of you heard the name Timothy Geithner lately (the one man money machine hired by Obama)? Well, Bush had one of those treasury groups too and they did pay their taxes. LOL… These expenses were approved by both Republicans and Democrats that are put on these committees and signed off on by Congress. Not bulldozed through like the Congress we have now mind you — they actually let everyone participate.
Anyway, I can see both sides of these issues because I liked points on both sides but I hate to see our Presidential Office be so disrespected by people and then they hide behind free speech. It is a tough job for any candidate to do but they should all be respected for the hard work they must do for everybody in our GREAT COUNTRY. I DO respect your opinions and I’m sorry mine rambled on for so long. I guess I had more on my mind than I thought.
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