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The tax cuts implemented at the beginning of the Bush administration were an experiment in supply-side economics. The logic was that if the American people gave tax cuts to the wealthiest among us—alongside much smaller tax cuts for the rest of us—they would invest, and growth and rising living standards would follow. As President Bush said in April 2001, “Tax relief will create new jobs, tax relief will generate new wealth and tax relief will open new opportunities.”

This experiment failed. The economic recovery over the last decade was the weakest in the post-World War II era in terms of growth in investment. Median family income was lower than it was in 2000, and the pace of job creation was the slowest in generations.

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This article was originally published in The New York Times.