This goes against the grain of everything the German media have told us about President Bush’s economic policies:
The Rich Were Better Off Under Clinton Than Bush
(…) In the first graph, I show the after-tax figures for each quintile of the population (where quintile 1 = the poorest 20%, and quintile 5 = the richest 20%). What we should see, if the Democrats and the media are to be believed, is that incomes were equitably distributed during the Clinton years and then became seriously skewed in favor of the rich (due to the 2001 tax cuts) during the Bush years. Here is what the data actually suggest:
The evidence simply does not support the claim. Can you imagine what it would be like if every article suggesting that the Bush tax cuts favored the wealthy included a chart like this? Well, the article would not work, so it will never happen. (…)
My main point is that the Democrats’ claim that the Bush tax cuts helped only the wealthy does not square with the facts, and I am both astounded to discover that this is true and discouraged to know that there is no possible way the American public will ever appreciate it. If the media hasn’t figured it out by now, they never will.
Is it likely that the German media will figure it out? Don’t bet the ranch on it…
