As the campaigns for President continues to unfold, messaging from both parties generally coalesce around common themes. One of those themes for the Republican candidates is the concept of cutting taxes and reducing the size of government. Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush (R-Florida) includes both of those types of claims in speeches he gives to voters around the country.
Before Bush threw his hat into the ring to declare that he was a candidate for President, he spoke at Florida Governor Rick Scott's Economic Growth Summit and noted that he had indeed reduced the size of government while he was Governor. Bush said the following:
"We reduced the government workforce by 13,000, 11 percent, during my eight years."
Our partners at PolitiFact Florida looked into Bush's claim to see if he was accurate. Politifact reporter Joshua Gillin says that Bush's claim rates TRUE on the Truth-O-Meter. Gillin said that the evidence is there, and Bush got his claim right.
"Every governor has some say in the number of people employed by the state," said Gillin. "When Jeb Bush was in office, he did reduce the number of employees by a little more than 13,000. We took a look at the stats, and he's got it right."
So where did those jobs go? "A lot of those jobs were either privatized or cut entirely," said Gillin. "Nonetheless, his calculations are correct, and we did look at it a few different ways, and the result was the same. Bush was on the money with the number of government jobs he reduced while in office."
PolitiFact rates Jeb Bush's claim TRUE on the Truth-O-Meter.
SOURCES: Did Jeb Bush reduce the size of government?
- PolitiFact ruling
- Jeb Bush, Economic Growth Summit speech, June 2, 2015
- Tampa Bay Times, "Jeb Bush: Cut 25% of state workers," July 11, 2000
- Orlando Sentinel, "Financial chief will scrutinize state contracts," Dec. 26, 2006
- Washington Post, "The Jeb Bush Era Ends in Florida," Jan. 7, 2007
- Associated Press, "Fla. Senate budget chief questions no-bid contract," June 3, 2009
- PolitiFact Florida, "Alex Sink says Florida is last on two state employee measures," Sept. 14, 2010
- South Florida Sun Sentinel, "Salaries for Florida's child care officials are out of control, lawmakers say," April 2, 2011
- PolitiFact Florida, "Rick Scott says budget sets record low for state workers per capita this century," May 22, 2013
- Florida Times-Union, "New contracts give private prison giant nearly 80 percent of Florida's private prison market," Dec. 16, 2013
- Wall Street Journal, "What Kind of Republican is Bush? His Time as Governor Offers Clues," Dec. 16, 2014
- Tallahassee Democrat, "Gov. Rick Scott cuts more state jobs than any governor in recent history," Jan. 17, 2015
- Tallahassee Democrat, "Gov. Rick Scott proposes cutting 1,000 state positions," Jan. 28, 2015
- Miami Herald, "The ‘cannibalizing’ of Florida’s prison system," Feb. 28, 2015
- PolitiFact Florida, "The saga of state spending enforcer Jeb Bush's one-time alias, Veto Corleone," May 26, 2015
- PolitiFact Florida, "Jeb Bush says 1.3 million jobs were created in Florida during his tenure -- more than Texas," June 3, 2015
- Florida Department of Management Services, Annual Workforce Reports, accessed June 3, 2015
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Florida Government Employees 1998-2015, accessed June 4, 2015
- Interview with Natalee Singleton, Florida Department of Management Services spokeswoman, June 3, 2015
- Interview with Howard Frank, Florida International University public administration professor, June 3, 2015
- Interview with Matt Gorman, Right to Rise political action committee spokesman, June 3-4, 2015
- Interview with Chris Lafakis, Moody’s Analytics senior economist, June 3-4, 2015
- Interview with Hai (David) Guo, Florida International University public administration professor, June 4, 2015