In 2001, right after President Bush took office, his people pushed hard for Speaker Hastert to pass through a huge tax cut.  The economy was slowing down as the tech bubble burst, and the Bush team wanted a big enough tax cut to jump start economic growth.

Hastert was entering his third year as Speaker, and he had been through several different tax fights with Mr. Bush’s predecessor, Bill Clinton.

What Hastert learned in his fights with Clinton is that it is far better to talk about the actual policy than it is to talk about big numbers.  In other words, it was better to talk about getting rid of the marriage penalty, getting rid of the death tax, lowering the cost of investment, giving families with kids help with a child tax credit, and branding business tax cuts as ways to create jobs.

The new Bush Administration wanted to push through a big tax cut early, but Hastert insisted that the House methodically communicate as it legislated by breaking up the big tax cut into its smaller parts.  And on each one of its parts, a substantial number of Democrats joined with Republicans to enact the Bush tax cut agenda, not because they wanted to, but because they had to.  Read more...