Bush Tax Cuts Positive For The Economy? I Don't Think So.

This is a link to an article by Bruce Bartlett at capitalgainsandgames.com entitled Republican Tax Nonsense, dated 17 Jul 2010.

In the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Republicans continue to insist that the Bush tax cuts had a positive effect on the tax picture. Bartlett has assembled a list of quotations rebutting this idea from prominent economists -- not lefties, but advisers in W's administration, as follows:

• Andrew Samwick, chief economist at the Council of Economic Advisers during George W. Bush’s first term
  
• Alan Viard, senior economist at Council of Economic Advisers during Bush’s first term
  
• Robert Carroll, deputy assistant secretary for tax analysis at the U.S. Treasury Department during Bush’s second term
  
• Edward Lazear, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers in Bush’s second term
  
• Bush’s nominee, later confirmed, to be Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Paulson
  
• economist Greg Mankiw, who chaired the Council of Economic Advisers during Bush’s first term
  
• A 2005 Congressional Budget Office study during the time that Republican Doug Holtz-Eakin was CBO director.
  

Bartlett says: 

"The 2003 Economic Report of the President during Bush’s first term stated (pp. 57-58):

“Although the economy grows in response to tax reductions (because of higher consumption in the short run and improved incentives in the long run), it is unlikely to grow so much that lost tax revenue is completely recovered by the higher level of economic activity.”