On Monday’s Special Report (10/8/12), Brit Hume thought the President was lying about Romney’s tax plan. But Hume wound up misrepresenting the effects of the Bush tax cuts.

Hume said:

A favorite talking point of the Obama campaign is that Mitt Romney’s economic proposals would simply reinstate the same tax cut and deregulation policies that led to the 2008 financial meltdown. Two things should be said about this claim. One is that it has gone unanswered by the Romney camp, and the second is that it is utterly invalid.

The tax cuts put in place under President Bush in 2001 and 2003 can not be blamed for the mortgage market collapse that triggered the Great Recession. In fact, they can be credited with helping the economy out of the recession of 2001-02, and with helping overcome the later economic damage from Hurricane Katrina. And by the way, that expansion and the tax revenues it produced, were sufficient to drive down the deficit for three years in a row, 2005-07. This despite massive war spending.”

In fact, the tax cuts helped fuel the derivative market that helped sink the economy.