Jeb Covers Up The Family Legacy of Economic Destruction With a Bushel of Obama Lies

Last updated on March 14th, 2013 at 09:21 am

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On ABC’s This Week, Jeb Bush lied about Obama’s record on the debt to cover up his family history of destroying the American economy.

Here is the video:

When asked about the debt, former Gov. Bush said that Obama has not been serious about deficit reduction,

I haven’t seen the seriousness of the president’s efforts. I’d love to see a specific plan that really did reform- bend the cost curve for Medicare and the entitlement system. I haven’t seen it, so if there is through these talks, some kind of consensus that emerged, I don’t think you should say, ‘no, no, no’ about anything.’

Frankly, there was already been one of the largest tax increases in American history a month ago. And frankly, we ought to be focused on sustained economic growth, which grows more revenue for people and for government than any tax increase that’s been suggested, so there are a lot of things that could be done to create a real grand bargain. And let the process work. I’m hopeful that the president’s sincere about this.

Jeb Bush was completely lying about both Obama’s seriousness about reducing the national debt, and the drivers of our debt. It is stunning that Bush would so openly try to fool the American people into forgetting his brother’s role in creating our current debt problem. Bush repeated the Great Republican Lie that entitlement spending is responsible for the debt. (Bush also ignored the fact that President Obama has put entitlement reform on the table numerous times during his presidency.)

The best way to illustrate both how we got here and who got us here is with the graph below:

If you look at the impact of the policies of George W. Bush and Barack Obama, it becomes clear who was/is not taking the debt seriously. President Obama’s policies will only add $983 billion to the debt over the course of his eight years in office, while George W. Bush’s policies added $5.1 trillion to the debt during his presidency.

The other debt on Obama’s record was caused by the collapse of the economy, and we all know who is responsible for The Great Recession:

Before Jeb Bush can get back into politics, he has to rehabilitate the family name. He started this process with a speech defending his brother’s record at the 2012 Republican convention, and he is continuing it by trying to massage away from the memories of voters his brother’s responsibility for destroying the economic health of the country.

In order to explain away the facts, Jeb Bush has to repeat stupid and obvious lies about the president passing the “largest tax increase in history,” and “not being serious about the debt.” Entitlement spending and how this debt was created are two separate issues that Republicans are trying to mix up in order to accomplish their ideological goal of destroying the social safety net.

Before the sequester, Obama had already slashed the debt by $2.5 trillion. However, this apparently isn’t serious enough for Jeb Bush.

Jeb Bush wants back into politics, but his brother’s legacy is the main reason why he will never be president. Jeb Bush can tell all the lies he wants, but as long as Americans are still living with the economic pain caused by this brother, he will never win a presidential election.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association