Economic Growth and the Bush Tax Cuts

Did the Bush tax cuts generate economic growth?:

They were supposed to promote long-term growth by realigning incentives. ...Many companies instituted dividends to take advantage of the tax break, but whether that induced more investment is unclear. What’s indisputable is that deficits grew while the U.S. economy rumbled along in slow gear: Growth averaged 2.3 percent a year from the end of the 2001 recession through December 2007...

[Actually,] Much of the growth that was observed during the Bush years was due to the housing bubble. That growth was illusory, and if we were to adjust for the illusory component of the growth that shows up in the measurements cited above, the Bush years would look even worse.
---Mark Thoma, 8/9