General
Peter B. Teeley, Who Coined the Term ‘Voodoo Economics,’ Dies at 84
As press secretary for George H.W. Bush, he came up with the expression to attack Ronald Reagan’s economic plan. The term took on a life of its own.
Peter B. Teeley, who as the sharp-penned press secretary for George H.W. Bush during his 1980 presidential campaign coined the term “voodoo economics” to describe the tax and spending plans of the candidate’s rival at the time, Ronald Reagan, died on Friday in Washington. He was 84.
His wife, Victoria Casey, said he died in a hospital from cancer.
Mr. Teeley was especially close to Mr. Bush, whom he met through a mutual friend, James A. Baker III. All three were moderate Republicans, and Mr. Teeley helped Mr. Bush run a spirited campaign against the more conservative Mr. Reagan in the 1980 primary.
Among Mr. Reagan’s campaign promises was a plan to cut taxes on corporations and the wealthy, which he argued would increase economic growth and investment, producing gains that would eventually benefit everyone.
In thinking about how to respond to the plan, Mr. Teeley recalled an editorial joking that President Jimmy Carter’s economic policies had been put together by witch doctors. And what, he asked himself, do witch doctors do?
“Then it hit me,” he told the historian Jon Meacham for his biography of Mr. Bush, “Destiny and Power” (2015). “They do ‘voodoo,’ and I put that in Bush’s speech.”
The phrase quickly took on a life of its own, probably far beyond what Mr. Teeley had intended. When conservatives pounced on Mr. Bush for saying it, he denied having uttered it — until reporters produced evidence.
