Posts Tagged ‘The Bush tax cuts’

“Federal deficits were caused by Bush’s tax cuts for the rich.” That was a typical response I got from a previous post, “Federal Spending for Dummies.” It struck me as a legitimate reaction. After all, President Bush and a Republican-controlled Congress cut income tax rates for all workers in 2001. Specifically, they reduced the top marginal income tax rate from 39.6 percent to 35 percent. Additional tax-reduction legislation was passed in the ensuing years which lowered various tax rates for America’s most productive workers. The suggestion was that government revenues shrunk because of these tax cuts, depriving the treasury of funds and driving up the deficit to unprecedented levels. And yet an analysis of the data reveals liberal critics have it wrong …