the tax cuts had been largely opposed by american economists, including the bush administration's own economic advisement council. in 2003, 450 economists, including ten nobel prize laureate, signed the economists' statement opposing the bush tax cuts, sent to president bush stating that "these tax cuts will worsen the long-term budget outlook... will reduce the capacity of the government to finance social security and medicare benefits as well as investments in schools, health, infrastructure, and basic research... [and] generate further inequalities in after-tax income."