bush/obama tax cuts

[Danzig]

i think it's disingenuous to just call them by one or the others name. a new battle over continuing the cuts is about to begin. obama proposes not continuing the cuts to people making over 250k a year (i wonder why they were ever included originally, or continued subsequently) whereas some will recommend keeping them all intact. then there's this question(from an msnbc article):

" Here’s an entirely different question: Have these tax cuts worked? Have they promoted economic growth? Have they created lots of jobs? The Bush-era tax cuts have been in existence for 11 years now. During that time period, George W. Bush presided over the weakest eight-year span for the U.S. economy in decades; the Great Recession took place; and job creation during Obama’s presidency has been lackluster. In this renewed debate over the Bush tax cuts, we’re going to hear Republicans claim that not extending them -- especially for the wealthy -- will hurt the economy. And we’ll hear the same from Obama when it comes to extending them for the middle class. But what evidence is there that these tax cuts have truly benefited the U.S. economy? This is one of these accepted pieces of conventional wisdom that doesn’t get much study on the policy front because, politically, it’s so lethal."


how much have they helped, if at all? did making the cuts actually cause more harm than good, by not nudging jobs figures while putting the fed in a more precarious predicament by cutting funds going into ss? a growing debt/deficit is a damper on the us economy.
honestly, with everything that's happened, i'm surprised we aren't worse off than we are.