In terms of promoting job growth, the Bush tax cuts were a complete failure.
By the end of 8 years of George W. Bush's economic stewardship, 1.1 million jobs had been added to the economy. Measured against any of his predecessors, Bush was a complete failure. Clinton added 22 times as many jobs. Reagan added 16 times as many jobs. Eisenhower added three times as many jobs, when the U.S. economy was a fraction of its current size.
Even prior to the financial meltdown, Bush's record of job creation was dismal. The economy started hemorrhaging jobs in June 2008, but from the end of January 2001 through May 2008, the U.S. economy created 5 million jobs. That's less than 700 thousand jobs a year, the worst performance, over a seven-year stretch, since the early 1960s.
Number of Jobs Added [millions]
Bush, Feb. 2001- Jan. 2009: 1.1
Clinton, Feb. 1993- Jan. 2001: 22.7
Reagan/Bush, I Feb. 1981- Jan. 1993: 18.7
Carter, Feb. 1976- Jan. 1981:10.3
Nixon/Ford, Feb. 1969- Jan. 1976: 11.3
Kennedy/Johnson, Feb. 1961- Jan. 1969: 15.7
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Seasonally Adjusted Nonfarm Payrolls
Of course the job losses that began in 2008 accelerated into 2009 and onward. You can ascribe the blame to Bush or to Obama. But you can't point to any evidence that the Bush tax cuts actually added jobs in the past two years. The reasons are obvious to anyone who understands how companies make their hiring decisions. They hire because they expect their business volume to grow, or because the current workforce cannot handle the tasks at hand. Does anyone really think that a small business owner who nets more than $1 million a year - say, a plastic surgeon, or a hedge fund manager, or (Justin) Bieber Time Touring LLC--would hire more employees simply this tax rates were slashed after the end of the Clinton Administration?
By the way, the Clinton Administration created about 3 million more jobs than the administrations of Ronald Reagan, Bush I, and Bush II combined.
In terms of fiscal prudence, the Bush tax cuts were a complete failure.
Guess what happened after the U.S. economy came out of a mild recession that ended in November 2001? U.S. tax revenues plummeted. They plummeted at a rate that was unprecedented since the demobilization after World War II. And they plummeted during a time when Bush initiated a war that would leave us mired in Iraq for more than seven years.
Historically, U.S. income tax revenues have always grown, year after year. The problem was that government expenditures always grew more. So when revenues started falling, the relationship, between what the government took in and what it spent, really got out of whack.
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