03's federal tax revenues were lower than before President Bush (00's)

[papau]

last year's federal tax revenues were lower than before President Bush took office

deficit hit a record of $415 billion

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/08/politics/08deficit.html

October 8, 2004
Tax Revenue Below 2000's Despite Growth in Profits
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS

ASHINGTON, Oct. 7 - Even after a year of solid economic growth and booming corporate profits, federal income tax revenues were lower in the fiscal year that just ended than in the year before President Bush took office, according to estimates by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

In a sign that Mr. Bush's tax cuts have had a bigger impact on the federal deficit than administration officials have often suggested, personal and corporate income taxes are both lower than they were in 2000 even though personal income and corporate profits are both substantially higher.<snip>

Republicans have cited the jump in business tax revenues as vindication for the four tax cuts that Mr. Bush has pushed through Congress since he took office. <snip>

But the four-year budget record is less comforting. Spending, particularly military spending, has climbed rapidly since Mr. Bush took office. Largely because of the war in Iraq, but also because of Pentagon modernization projects, military spending has climbed about 40 percent since 2000 to $437 billion. Military spending climbed 12.3 percent in 2004 alone, faster than Medicare and Medicaid entitlement programs and about three times faster than other discretionary programs.

More striking is the decline in tax revenues since 2000. Tax revenues plunged when the stock market bubble collapsed in 2000 and continued to decline as a result of the recession in 2001 and the high unemployment that followed. But personal income and corporate profits have both recovered since the downturn and are once again at record highs.<snip>