The Bush Tax Cuts: A Lasting Legacy

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By Frideriki A. Meris
2010, Vol. 2 No. 09 | Page 5 of 5 |
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Keywords:    George Bush Bush Tax Cuts Financial Crisis Tax Rates
This article is part of the compilation, Years of Tumult: Retrospective Analyses of the George W. Bush Presidency, composed by a class of Northeastern Political Science students and edited by Chris Federici and Nicole Wilkins.

Furthermore, the tax cuts ability to restrain spending seems to have failed greatly. As the theory goes, as tax revenues fall government would be forced to reduce its spending. What the Bush Tax Cuts have shown is that such a mechanism is at best not suited for certain economic times or at worst a failed theory. From the period of the Bush Cuts spending increased substantially and deficits grew. The “starve the beast” theory appeared to have not only proved ineffective as tool of fiscal conservatism, but rather encouraged deficits by allowing spending obligations to continue unabated and reducing tax revenues.

Finally, the tax package placed the Obama Administration in a very awkward position both politically and economically when dealing with the most recent financial crisis. Put simply, the Bush Administration had unnecessarily let deficit after deficit balloon the national debt to the point that made economists uneasy. This, coupled with the government’s history of deficits during the Bush Administration made the necessarily policies aimed at stimulation and stabilizing the US economy politically unpopular. The same Keynesian responses to falling GDP that other US president have utilized was no longer viewed as a necessary expenditure, but rather as examples of runaway government spending.

References

Bartlett, Bruce. ""Starve the Beast": Origins and Development of a Budgetary Metaphor." Independent Review 12, no. 1 (2007): 5-26.

Burke, Karen C., and Grayson M. P. McCouch. "Turning Slogans into Tax Policy." Virginia Tax Review 27, no. 4 (2008): 747(35).

Canova, Timothy A. "Legacy of the Clinton Bubble." Dissent (00123846) 55, no. 3 (2008): 41-50.

Fallows, James. "Countdown to a Meltdown." The Atlantic, no. July / August (2005).

Gale, William G., and Peter R. Orszag. "Bush Administration Tax Policy: Effects on Long-Term Growth." In Tax Notes: Brookings Institution, 2004.

Gale, William G., and Peter R. Orszag. "An Economic Assessment of Tax Policy in the Bush Administration, 2001-2004.(the State of Federal Income Taxation Symposium: Rates, Progressivity, and Budget Processes)." Boston College Law Review 45, no. 5 (2004): 1157-252.

"Historical Budget Data." In Historical Data, edited by Congressional Budget Office. Washington, DC: CBO, 2010.

Reich, Robert. "Cleaning up the Bush Mess." In Public Policy Research, 68-73: Blackwell Publishing Limited, 2008.

Taylor, Timothy. "The Economy in Perspective." Public Interest, no. 157 (2004): 85-99.

USGovernmentSpending.COM. "Federal Deficit Spending in Us." 2010.

USGovernmentSpending.COM. "Us Government Spending as Percent of Gdp." 2010.

"Where Did the Revenues Go?". In Revenue and Tax Policy Brief, edited by Congressional Budget Office. Washington, DC, 2002.

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From Years of Tumult

I: Economic Policy

  1. Taxing Presidency: A Critique of the George W. Bush Tax Policy
  2. The Bush Tax Cuts: A Lasting Legacy

II: Compassionate Conservatism and Domestic Policy

  1. The Bush Presidency: Undermining the Separation Between Church and State
  2. How Compassionate Was George W. Bush's Conservatism?
  3. George W. Bush and No Child Left Behind: A Federalist Perspective

III: Media, Elections and the Politicization of Governing

  1. Thirty-Six Days of Turmoil: George W. Bush and the 2000 Election
  2. Labor Relations Under the Bush Administration
  3. George Bush and the New York Times: A Contentious Relationship

IV: Law and Politics

  1. Eight Years, Twelve Vetoes: Why President Bush Chose to Ignore His Veto Power
  2. Cases and Controversies: George W. Bush's Appeals Court Nominations

V: Bush's Anti-Terrorism Policies

  1. The Bush Administration, Human Rights, and a Culture of Torture
  2. The Bush Administration Torture Policy: Origins and Consequences

VI: Foreign Policy and International Relations

  1. The Millenium Challenge Account: Foreign Aid and International Development Programs of the Bush Administration
Frideriki A. Meris graduated in 2010 with a concentration in Political Science from Northeastern University in Boston, MA.

Related Articles

How Compassionate Was George W. Bush's Conservatism?
A Taxing Presidency: A Critique of the George W. Bush Tax Policy
Thirty-Six Days of Turmoil: George W. Bush and the 2000 Election
The Bush Administration, Human Rights, and a Culture of Torture
Labor Relations Under the Bush Administration
George Bush and No Child Left Behind: A Federalist Perspective
Cases and Controversies: George W. Bush's Appeals Court Nominations

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