It Turns Out That Politicians Keep Most Of Their Promises After All

August 26, 2016 in Daily Bulletin

Believe that politicians are lying scum who will say anything to get votes? Turns out most of them follow through on what they say:

  • Studies have consistently found that American Presidents have made a good faith effort to keep about two thirds of their campaign promises.
  • Bush, after all, cut taxes and enacted education reform as he had promised. Obama delivered health care and environmental legislation.
  • In fact, Obama so far has kept about 70% of his promises, while Republicans have kept about the same proportion of the promises they made before they took over the house.
  • Over in Europe politicians keep even more of their promises, likely because in parliamentary systems the ruling party controls both the legislative and the executive branch.
  • In cases where politicians don’t keep to their promises, it is often due to unusual circumstances – such as the once in a generation financial crisis that required Bush to pass a deficit inducing stimulus package.
  • Perhaps politicians are thought of as liars because when they do abruptly go back on their word there is a lot of coverage around it, and people remember it more than instances of promises being kept.

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Source: Five Thirty Eight