Jeb Bush: "Let’s disrupt Washington. Let’s create a little bit of a recession in Washington, D.C." [View all]

[seafan]

Daily Beast, October 15, 2015



attribution: Gage Skidmore/Creative Commons, via Kos

Maybe it’s reverse psychology, or maybe Jeb Bush is trying to reenergize his flagging White House bid by diving cuboidal-head first into absurdity, but the Republican presidential candidate has come out as an advocate for an unlikely cause: recession.

In New Hampshire on Wednesday, speaking to Sean Hannity in front of two plastic pumpkins and a Jeb! 2016 placard, the former Florida governor was asked how he would make the argument to voters that the Democrats’ plans to expand the safety net would bankrupt the country.

“We have the benefit now of all of this philosophy of offering free things to people not working,” Bush said. “I think the better message is, let’s disrupt Washington. Let’s create a little bit of a recession in Washington, D.C., so that we can have economic prosperity outside of Washington.”

Asked if Bush really meant that he would like to create a recession in Washington, D.C., the country’s fourth-largest metropolitan economy, his spokesman, Tim Miller, responded, “We should shrink D.C. so we can grow the economy of the rest of the country.”

But Bush said recession.

Asked “yes or no,” does Bush believe D.C. should be hit with a recession, as the country as a whole continues to recover from the Great Recession, Miller said, “He certainly wants to shrink the size of D.C. as laid out on his plan to reform Washington.”

Shrinking the size of the federal government is a vastly different endeavor than creating a recession in the city in which the federal government is based. Asked if Bush is aware of the definition of a recession, Miller said, “a period of temporary economic decline generally identified by a fall of GDP in two successive quarters.”

Asked why in the hell a candidate for president of the United States would wish such a thing on an American city, Miller didn’t respond—not even to suggest it was a joke.

Michael D. Brown, Washington, D.C.’s “shadow” senator, was not amused, either way.

“I think he’s trying to be clever and say, ‘If we deprive the congressmen and the senators, if we screw things up for them, they’ll pay attention,’” Brown said. “My first impression is that it’s reflective of the way these people think about our city, that this isn’t a place where Americans live for some reason. Why would you say that about a place where 650,000 taxpayers live—many of whom are veterans?”

“I just think it’s a preposterous idea,” he said. “Washington is a major economic hub. We have greater GDP than nine different states. We are an economic engine! It’s ridiculous.”

Brown continued, “People don’t think about us here in the District of Columbia like we’re regular citizens. So, beyond the obvious stupidity of the remark, how would that stimulate the economy elsewhere? These people that come and serve in our city don’t depend on our city for income. If that’s his point, you make the congressman poor and then he’ll care, it’s just stupid.”

The more people see of Bush, it seems, the less they like him.

The wormy apple doesn't fall far from the diseased tree.


Bringing out the "nasty" in dynasty, another insufferably stupid utterance from the silver spoon dynasty candidate.