Were The Bush Tax Cuts Good For Growth? Not So Much

The New York Times:

Liz Peek at FoxNews.com congratulates me for writing about the importance of economic growth. So in the spirit of maximizing growth, I want to pose a question: Why should we believe that extending the Bush tax cuts will provide a big lift to growth?

Read the whole story: The New York Times

Comments

[Boots in Their Snoots]

08:01 AM on 12/01/2010

Let's see another graph alongside the GDP graph. How much has government SPENDING increased in those same years? It's easy to see that when you borrow more money this year than last year, your budget goes up just to pay the interest to the Chinese bankers you borrowed from. Even if you spend the same this year, you still owe more just for the interest. That's a de facto tax INCREASE and everybody has a share of the federal deficit no matter how rich or poor you are.

[citizenwatch]

09:27 AM on 11/22/2010

Illegal immigrants stimulated the economy more during the Bush years than the tax cuts.

[Voting citizen]

01:11 PM on 11/21/2010

Did bush bring anything good to the American people? I'm thinking not a thing he did was worth the paper it was written on or the time it took to think it up. He is the president of destruction...economy, security, constitutional rights, peace of mine, jobs, middle class, travel, happiness, and the list goes on....

[citizenwatch]

09:29 AM on 11/22/2010

He revealled to the world the real character of a Texan.

F&F

[jdevans]

03:27 PM on 11/22/2010

The Bush Touch -- opposite of the Midas Touch. Everything Bush touched became worthless.

[rory talbot]

11:23 PM on 11/22/2010

Bush...Mush. Everything he touched turned to mush. Haha!

[Steve Rockett]

01:57 PM on 11/20/2010

Duh, how many times must we repeat this lesson before the electorate gets it? We must get rid of the tax cuts and raise taxes on the rich if we are going to leave our progeny any semblance of a solid government. We cannot continue to have tax cuts and expect to balance the budget. The rich Cs have to start behaving like patriots and true Americans. All of them are just anchors around our country's neck. If you love this country recall the republicans, or send them on a fact finding mission to Mexico.

[Otherday]

12:22 PM on 11/20/2010

Bush Junior's tax plan = Failure.

We're in the worst economic situation since the Great Depression. Why keep any economic scheme that Junior left behind? His policies didn't work, so dump all of them and start over with a revenue plan that creates a stronger America.

[blueken]

10:29 AM on 11/20/2010

I know that when the bills get to big, you have to increase revenue and pay off debt. Interest on debt is wasteful spending. The interest paid on national debt is huge. We have to pay down some of the principle. If that's what they want to do with the added revenue from letting the Bush tax cuts expire, I'm all for it.

[greysells2]

08:51 PM on 11/19/2010

Never saw a shred of evidence that the Bush Tax Cuts either did or will actually will "trickle down" and produce jobs and growth. Anybody have any evidence? Watch out for the "post hoc ergo propter hoc" error in logic! [after that therefore because of that]

[Steve Rockett]

01:59 PM on 11/20/2010

Absolutely correctomundo. [right on dude or dudette]

[mikey09]

08:31 AM on 11/19/2010

I can only look at what the tax cuts did for my family....instead of running up more debt during the last 10 years, we used the extra income from the tax cuts to pay off all of our debt.
 
We know that wars and other dumb spending is hurting our national economy, we know our dependence on oil is not good for us....we know lots of things, BUT, we can never decide the right way to fix all of our problems.....that is our REAL problem....we can decide on the CURE..
 
NO ONE wants to defund or stop spending....EVERYONE wants to defund or stop spending....can't decide on what to defund or stop spending on.....so we just keep sinking lower, until eventually we won't have any choice at all...

[RageCage]

08:14 AM on 11/19/2010

Ask the opposite. Will raising taxes help the economy? I say no. Why do I say no? Because the stimulus didn't help the economy. The stimulus passed and unemployment went up? Unemployment is currently higher than at any time during the Bush presidency.

So if raising taxes won't help the economy, why not simply keep them as low as possible. Let the people keep as much of their money as they can. After all, it is THEIR money.

[greysells2]

09:03 PM on 11/19/2010

Actually, job creation actually did go up somewhat in the private sector. What went down was the number of government jobs due to the completion of the census. The malady of the moment is a business or economic cycle. Characteristically, these cycles do not respond quickly to medicine once they get started. Note the the tax cuts for the wealthy have been in place for quite a while prior to the onset of the recession. And those cuts did not prevent the near depression or severe recession [your choice]

Mikey09's comment illustrates that the tax cuts seemed to be well deployed from his personal finance POV but paying down debt is not stimulative at all.

[F7]

11:02 PM on 11/19/2010

Well, there is the argument that it isn't "their" money. It is the US Governments money, its is printed by the US Government, controlled by the US Government, and its value is based on the perceived wealth of the United States of America. The citizen is given the use of that money for commerce in order to maintain the wealth of said Untied States.

Not agreeing or disagreeing with the argument, just acknowledging it exists.

There is also the argument that a responsible citizen will pay their bills, which in this case includes paying taxes to support the infrastructure that is the Untied States of America.

Debate can go on about what we should be paying for, but in the meantime we have to pay the bills.

Unless you are comfortable to leaving our children and grandchildren a third world nation that is a pariah amongst the responsible nations of the world community.

[weekendpartier1]

07:42 AM on 11/19/2010

Ah the American people, not the brightest bulbs in the store, indeed perhaps too many burnt out bulbs!

[Bettysdad]

02:00 AM on 11/19/2010

Name a Repub economic policy that has been positive for the majority of Americans,

Go back 100 years if it helps.

[weekendpartier1]

07:44 AM on 11/19/2010

Uh Eisenhower built the interstate highway system which increased commerce across the US. Now I'm no rethugican but some rethug presidents aren't all bad. Lincoln was another president.

[Bettysdad]

10:49 AM on 11/19/2010

In 1999, one of the online financial sites asked a group of businesspeople, economists, historians,, etc what the most significant economic event of the 20th century was.

Far and awy they voted the interstate highway system.

I agree with you completely.

But it wasn't supported by most Repubs until Eisenhower pushed it as significant DEFENSE program, which is why it's official name contains "defense."

[emicscram]

04:00 PM on 11/21/2010

TR wasn't all bad either. BTW, Please remind me again what was the marginal federal income tax rate was when Eisenhower was the president?

[Debbie McPherson]

12:03 AM on 11/19/2010

Nobody believes for one moment that the tax cuts should be extended to the rich to help small business and create jobs, blah,blah,blah...
 
It's just the spin the GOP decided to put on it because they want those tax breaks. Congress is a Millionaires Club - wealth as much as 300 Million $$$, they know they can get this though - deficit be damned, Americans be damned - they want their tax cuts extended.
 
This no different than when they vote themselves raises, vote to up their own pensions by $9K per year as they did this year, - it's just a wonder Congressional Millionaires Club - imagine if you had a job where you could right yourself checks from the taxpayers funds all day long. That is Congress.
 
They only about silly stuff like funded or unfunded spending whne it comes to the public.  

[jeffrey678]

11:13 PM on 11/18/2010

George W Bush said in 2001 that the tax cuts were a "Fiscal Straight Jacket" for government.
They were not designed to stimulate growth or create jobs. Why would anyone even think anything different.

[IgnoranceIsStrength]

11:15 PM on 11/18/2010

The Bush Tax cuts have been in place for TEN YEARS. Why would any sane person think that extending them would get a different result ?

[jmdziuban1]

12:48 AM on 11/19/2010

Sane people don't.

[weekendpartier1]

07:46 AM on 11/19/2010

And you have a rethug icon?!?!?

[nananance]

10:47 PM on 11/18/2010

No unemployment benefits for the poor but tax cuts for the rich? Those who don't learn from history are doomed to be goverened by Republicans

[ran6110]

10:35 PM on 11/18/2010

They didn't do much for me but I guess they were great for the 1%ers...

[jmdziuban1]

12:49 AM on 11/19/2010

The compliment, and financial opposite of the 99ers.

[ran6110]

12:57 AM on 11/19/2010

Yup, well said...