Economic Facts
The Washington Times provides these talking points for refuting liberal blathering:- Rep. Nussle, R-Iowa, "The last six months have been the fastest-growing six months that our economy has seen in 20 years -- six months of sustained, gigantic economic growth."
- Had no tax cuts been in effect, according to figures supplies by the House Budget Committee, the unemployment rate would have reached a high of 7.5 percent instead of 5.6 percent at the end of February. The difference in real terms is 2.1 million jobs -- that is, the economy would have lost 4.1 million jobs total, instead of 2 million.
- If job growth continues at its present rate, the 2.6 million new jobs this year forecast in January by Bush's much-derided chief economic adviser, Greg Mankiw, should be easily achieved.
- According to the Congressional Budget Office, the year before Bush's tax cuts the top 20 percent of taxpayers paid 81.2 percent of all income-tax revenues collected by the U.S. Treasury. The year that the tax cuts kicked in, this same group paid 82.5 percent. [So much for tax cuts "for the rich".]
- The effective federal tax rate for the lowest-income quintile, or 20 percent, went from 6.4 percent under President Bill Clinton down to 5.4 percent under Bush. The next quintile higher went from 13 percent under Clinton to 11.6 percent under Bush. And the middle-class effective tax rate went from 20.5 percent under Clinton to 19.3 percent under Bush.
Blog post #2619 in category
Economics and the Economy
posted 16 April 04