GOP: Discord Between Obama and George Mason Prof.

While Barack Obama highlights his stimulus package at George Mason University today, the school’s own economics Professor Richard Wagner has criticized Obama’s plan, House Minority Leader John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) office highlighted Thursday.

Boehner touted his agreement with skepticism by Wagner, a fiscally conservative economist, that Obama’s proposal is a “borrow and spend” program.

“Any so-called stimulus program is a ruse,” Wagner said of the Obama proposal in a quote released by Boehner’s office. “Private spending is generally more efficient than the government spending that would replace it because people act more carefully when they spend their own money than when they spend other people’s money.”

“As Congress and President-elect Obama work together to help middle-class families and get our economy back on track, the deficit estimate makes it clearer than ever that we cannot borrow and spend our way back to prosperity when we