With all the governors and former governors in the race for president in 2016, it's probably inevitable that records would be compared between the candidates. That's what happened recently when former Florida Governor Jeb Bush was talking about spending and tax cuts while he was in office in the Sunshine State. Bush said the following:
"I cut state spending more than anybody in the 2016 GOP field."
Our partners at PolitiFact Florida took a look at this to see if it was true or not. PolitiFact reporter Joshua Gillin says that Bush's claim rates HALF TRUE on the Truth-O-Meter. Gillin says that there's always different ways to interpret financial data like this.
"Bush is citing a Fox News analysis of the spending records of all of the GOP candidates who are or who had been state governors," said Gillin. "The way that Fox broke it down, it showed that Bush was the candidate who had cut spending the most during his term more than any of the other candidates."
Gillin noted that there are variables that have to be kept in mind when it comes to spending numbers like this. "We talked to several experts, who warned us that this is not an exact comparison between states," said Gillin. "For example, the terms of these governors happened at different times, some during really good economic times and some during tiumes when the economy was tanking. You also have to cionsider who is making the cuts to a state budget. Is it the governor? Is it the state legislature? These factors aren't really mentioned at all in Bush's claim, which doesn't necessarily negate the claim itself; it just muddies the water a bit when it comes to the clarity of Bush's claim."
Although Bush's claim is correct if you look at the data one specific way, there are mitigating factors that could change those numbers out of Bush's favor, which leads to a HALF TRUE rating on PolitiFact's Truth-O-Meter.
SOURCES: Jeb Bush top cutter of spending?
- Politifact ruling
- Jeb Bush, Tweet, Aug. 31, 2015
- Bobby Jindal, Tweet, Aug. 31, 2015
- Email interview with Kristy Campbell, spokesperson for Jeb Bush, Sept. 3, 2015
- Email interview with Brian Sigritz, director of state fiscal studies for the National Association of State Budget Officers, Sept. 1, 2015
- Email interviews Alan Auerbach, professor of public finance at the University of California at Berkeley, Sept. 3, 2015
- Email interview with David Crane, lecturer in public policy at Stanford University and president of Govern for California, Sept. 3, 2015
- Email interview with Don Boyd, director of fiscal studies at the Rockefeller Institute of Government, Sept. 3, 2015
- Email interview with Matt Yglesias, executive editor of Vox, Sept. 3, 2015
- PolitiFact, Bobby Jindal: 'I'm the only candidate that has actually reduced the size of government’, Aug. 30, 2015
- Fox News, Fact Check: Which Republican candidates actually cut spending?, Aug. 28, 2015
- National Association of State Budget Officers, State Expenditure Report, 2014
- The Time-Picayune, Gov. Bobby Jindal says he's 'beginning to turn this state around', Oct. 12, 2011
- Vox, Stat check: Jeb Bush says he "cut state spending more than anybody", Sept. 1, 2015