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CNN Economic Analyst Zings Goolsbee Over Obama Admin Spending

February 13, 2018

CNN economic analyst Stephen Moore on Monday night pointed out the hypocrisy of former Obama economic adviser Austan Goolsbee exclusively criticizing the Trump administration's proposed budget when the Obama administration added over $9 trillion to the national debt in eight years.

Host Don Lemon told Goolsbee that the budget of the Republican-controlled Congress could "overheat the economy" and increase inflation after the tax cuts were implemented last month. He then asked Goolsbee whether he thought the concern was a "real threat."

"That's a possible threat. You remember, we're piling this on top of the already cut taxes for high-income people, big corporations by almost $2 trillion, so we're going to get some extra juice in a very hypocritical way–they attacked Obama for doing far smaller at a time when we really needed it," Goolsbee said. "But I think if you look at the budget document that the president put out today, you're going to be incensed. America is going to see what he proposed."

He went on to accuse President Donald Trump of "massive spending" and said he is being hypocritical by funding parts of Obamacare that he railed against during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Moore, a former economic adviser to Trump during the 2016 campaign, pushed back by pointing out how the Obama administration amassed over $20 trillion in national debt during his two terms in office.

"For Austan to talk about the debt–with all due respect, Austan, you worked for the president who took our debt from ten to twenty trillion dollars, so come on. Obama was the king of borrowing," Moore said.

He admitted that he wasn't defending what Republicans were doing with spending, but he praised the Trump administration and Republicans for tax reform.

"The tax cut is working, Austan," Moore said.

"The new Fed report says that we might grow five percent this quarter. That never happened under Obama, that kind of growth. It's all jobs and the economy, getting it moving. I don't believe that more government spending is good for the economy, but I do think this tax cut has really revved up growth in a big way."

"70 percent of Americans today rank the American economy as 'good' or 'great,'" Moore added.

Obama called former President George W. Bush "irresponsible" and "unpatriotic" during a 2008 campaign rally after his administration increased the national debt by $4 trillion.

Obama had added $9.3 trillion in national debt by the end of his second term while Bush added $4.9 trillion during his two terms in office.