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Location: Nashville, Tennessee, United States

1/09/2002

"We're nonetheless pleased Mr. Daschle made his speech. It took a step toward clarifying for voters that the major fault line between Republicans and Democrats continues to be taxes, in particular as a proxy for the size of government. That's a good debate to have come November." - Wall Street Journal editorial. Jan. 9, 2002

Daschle's Dubious Economics

Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle made a speech recently blaming the bad economy on President Bush's tax cuts. In an editorial, "The Daschle Economy," The Wall Street Journal highlights the speech's surplus of nonsense with a list of things Daschle blames on the Bush tax cuts that includes a recession that "officially started last March, well before the tax cuts passed in June."

WSJ also notes that "the plunge in stocks and downturn in manufacturing started well before that in 2000, when Bill Clinton was still President" and, "most of the Bush tax cuts haven't even become law yet; they're phased in over several years, with the largest cuts coming after 2004."

The WSJ notes that the biggest part of the tax cut to take effect so far was those $300 to $600 rebate checks - which Daschle's Democrats demanded - and which took about $40 billion out of the projected budget surplus last year. Yet, WSJ notes, Daschle "could always propose that Americans send their rebate checks back. But somehow that didn't make it into the Daschlenomics speech either."

The editorial correctly places the blame for the disappearing deficit on the Democrats' spending - and notes that Daschle himself is proposing a variety of spending increases and presides over a slim Senate majority that "berates Mr. Bush for refusing to spend more on just about everything."