Some proponents of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts have argued that the economic and employment growth of the past few years establishes that these tax cuts are \ufffdworking\ufffd and have had strong beneficial effects.

Examination of a broad range of key economic indicators, however, indicates that this economic expansion has not been especially robust. To the contrary, relative to expansionary periods in the past, the current recovery has, on balance, been somewhat weaker than average. In fact, with respect to GDP, consumption, investment, wage and salary, and employment growth, the current period is either the weakest or among the weakest since World War II.

Moreover, the economy\ufffds performance over the past five and a half years has overall been weaker than its performance in the early 1990s, in years following significant tax increases. GDP growth has been slightly weaker than in the 1990s, and job creation, wage and salary growth, and investment growth have been substantially weaker.