trickle down

At the end of September, 2008, presidential candidate Barack Obama released a two minute internet ad blasting trickle-down economics. Within the first 15 seconds of the ad, Obama said of trickle-down, “it didn’t work.” But yesterday, when speaking of the most recent pork-laden federal spending bill that he just signed, he changed his tune. When trying to justify all of the earmarks contained in the bill he said, “When you give it [tax dollars] to public companies, public entities like fire departments and if they are seeking taxpayer dollars, then I think all of us can feel some comfort that the state or municipality that's benefiting is doing so because it's going to trickle down and help the people in that community.  When they're private entities, then I believe they have to be evaluated with a higher level of scrutiny.” In other words, trickle down works when it is the government wasting your money but its bad economics in the private sector.