Income Falls 9.2% During First Two Years of Bush

This is not too surprising, the dotcom bubble burst and many people lost high-paying jobs.  But what has George Bush done to alleviate the situation, other than tax cuts for the rich?  Two unprecedented years of falling incomes elicited no response from the administration.  As far as the economy is concerned, he's still reading My Pet Goat.

The total adjusted gross income on tax returns fell 5.1 percent, to just over $6 trillion in 2002, the most recent year for which data is available, from $6.35 trillion in 2000. Because of population growth, average incomes declined even more, by 5.7 percent.

Adjusted for inflation, the income of all Americans fell 9.2 percent from 2000 to 2002, according to the new I.R.S. data.

[snip]

Before the recent drop, the last time reported incomes fell for even one year was in 1953. The only other time since World War II that the I.R.S. reported an interruption in income gains was from 1947 to 1949, but that was because of changes in the tax law at the time that affected how income was reported rather than an actual fall.