December 05, 2005, 9:10 a.m.
Bush Boom Continues Unabated
The impressive GDP story is a tale of a tax cut.

By Jerry Bowyer

Last week, the growth of gross domestic product was revised upward for the third quarter from an above-average 3.8 percent to a robust 4.3 percent. This level of growth is higher than the averages for the last 10, 20, and 30 years, making it impressive even if it had not come in the face of high energy prices and a series of devastating natural disasters.

In fact, the growth mark is the highest since the third quarter of 2003, when the economy reacted to the Bush tax cuts (enacted near the end of the previous quarter) with a staggering 7.25 percent annualized growth rate. The revision also raises the average for the last 10 quarters to 4.1 percent, which, as the chart above shows, bests the 3.6 percent mark set over President Clinton’s term.

Why do we begin counting 10 quarters ago? Because while Bush’s overall GDP average remains tempered by the anemic economy he inherited, it has grown by leaps and bounds since he signed his full tax cut (the so-called “tax cut for the rich”) into law. It’s admittedly easier to judge a president by everything that happens after he’s sworn in, but no president is an island, and no president gets to enact his policies the day he takes the oath of office. Since President Bush got the tax cut he wanted, Americans have gotten the economy they’ve earned.

— Jerry Bowyer is the author of The Bush Boom and an economic advisor to Independence Portfolio Partners. He can be reached through www.BowyerMedia.com.