How About the Bush Recession?

By Andrew Rosenthal, The New York Times

12 April 12

oor George W. Bush. Presidents are supposed to have things named after them (although generally they have to die for the big-ticket items, like airports), or at least have big ideas associated with them (like FDR’s New Deal, or LBJ’s Great Society). Ronald Reagan had a whole era named for him, not to mention Reaganomics.

Bill Clinton had An End to Welfare as We Know It. Mr. Bush’s father, George H.W. Bush, had The New World Order, and he got that one barely halfway through his single term.

For a while, Mr. Bush had The Bush Doctrine - the idea that the president can use military force whenever he feels like it so long as he calls it "pre-emption" - but that’s remembered mostly for the fact that Sarah Palin didn’t know what it was. Now he’s down to one "signature" achievement: The Bush Tax Cuts.

And apparently Mr. Bush is not amused. During a speech at the George W. Bush Presidential Center (that doesn’t count, everyone gets a center or a library), Mr. Bush said the best way to create jobs is to help small business owners and the best way to do that is to extend the tax cuts that he pushed through Congress when he was president.

"I wish they weren’t called the Bush tax cuts," he said. "If they were called some other body’s tax cuts, they’re probably less likely to be raised."

That got a chuckle from the audience, but the joke glosses over a crucial detail: Some of The Bush Tax Cuts are more popular than others. By and large, the public supports the cuts for those earning less than $250,000. And Democrats may well balk at repealing them.

What Americans don’t like is the cut for those making $250,000 and up, and that’s not because Mr. Bush’s name is attached to it, although that doesn’t help. They don't like it because it's not fair and it hurts the economy.