And...
if you look at the unemployment chart, it was pretty low in the middle of the Bush years (and then exploded at the end).
But nevermind the end even though that's an essential part of the story. In standard macro, when you're running near full employment, running a deficit and have very low interest rates it is time to either raise taxes or interest rates.
Greenspan stairstepped rates up in a tiny manner and the tax cuts remained. More evidence that Republicans were either addicted to an ideological cause (yes, at the talking head level) or simply engaged in a social re-engineering project whereby it was necessary to produce a "strong economy" while Rove went about the work of funding friends and defunding enemies. Check also.
That was exactly what he was talking about in regards to a permanent republican majority.
