In 2001...Bush & Republican congressional leaders--with the help of some Democrats--played...games to make the cuts appear smaller when calculating the impact over the next 10 years.

...Perhaps the most egregious...was...the estate tax. Its bite was to be reduced gradually through 2009, then repealed altogether in 2010 & then re- imposed fully in 2011.

When candidate Bush first proposed a large tax cut in the spring of 2000, there was no sign of recession. A year later the mild 2001 recession had begun by the time the cuts were being debated on Capitol Hill...

The recession ended before 2001 was out, though the tax cuts didn't seem to help the anemic recovery that followed. Another package of cuts was passed in 2003, & when the economic expansion accelerated...administration officials crowed about the power of tax cuts to improve the economy.

None of them ever explained why the more modest 2003 cuts did all that when the 2001 cuts didn't.