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Bush economic policy post-mortems

From today's Washington Post, here are Bush's very best economic reviews, coming as they do from people on the conservative / Republican side.

From former McCain economic adviser: Doug Holtz-Eakin:

"The expansion was a continuation of the way the U.S. has grown for too long, which was a consumer-led expansion that was heavily concentrated in housing ... There was very little of the kind of saving and export-led growth that would be more sustainable ... For a group that claims it wants to be judged by history, there is no evidence on the economic policy front that that was the view," Holtz-Eakin said. "It was all Band-Aids."

From Mark Zandi, also an informal McCain adviser:

"It's sad to say, but we really went nowhere for almost ten years, after you extract the boost provided by the housing and mortgage boom. It's almost a lost economic decade."

From AEI's Kevin Hassett, who also advised the McCain campaign:

"On tax reform, I think they themselves were not very interested in it .... [T]he economy was caught up in a storm while he was president, but it wasn't his fault .... In the end, to the extent there ends up being a defense of the Bush presidency [on economic issues], that's about the best you can get."

Again, these are the relatively good reviews. The bad ones probably wouldn't be allowed in a family newspaper.

Full post as published by Start Making Sense on January 12, 2009 (boomark / email).