LEWISTON – Former President Clinton’s chief economic adviser on Thursday credited President Bush with delivering on the economic policies he promised four years ago.

The problems is, Laura Tyson said, those same policies are responsible for sinking the country into ever-deepening deficit spending that has hampered the country’s economic recovery from the recent recession.

Stumping for John Kerry at Bates College, Tyson said Bush had a choice between stimulating the economy by putting more money in the hands of middle-class consumers or aiming most of his tax cuts at the wealthiest Americans. He chose the latter, she said.

Tyson, who now serves as dean of the London School of Business, was the featured speaker at an economic forum that included economics professors from Bates, Colby College and the University of Southern Maine, as well as Jeff Sosnaud, Maine’s deputy commissioner of Economic and Community Development.

Bush inherited a “buoyant economy that went into cyclical decline,” Tyson said. But instead of directing money to stimulate the economy through state aid and middle-class tax cuts, he chose a “trickle-down” approach.

She pointed a finger at Vice President Dick Cheney who “clearly said deficits don’t matter.” Consequently, the administration has done nothing to address the problem, she said.

Kerry’s economic recovery plan would start by rolling back the Bush tax cuts for anyone making more than $200,000 a year, back to Clinton administration rates. Tyson said that could be done “without in any way injuring, harming or slowing down the economy.”

She said Kerry is focused on job creation through various tax incentives, using money saved from repeal of the upper-income tax cuts.

He would offer tax credits to college students on their tuitions, and to small businesses that provide workers with health insurance coverage. He also plans to reduce corporate income taxes, she said.

Sosnaud, who said he was at the forum on his own time, said Gov. John Baldacci has helped close the health insurance gap with passage of Dirigo Health. At the same time, Maine has seen healthy growth in personal income and exports.

“As successful as he has been, our governor in the Blaine House has lacked a partner in the White House,” he said.