during his first term (2001–2005), president bush sought and obtained congressional approval for the bush tax cuts, which mainly comprised the economic growth and tax relief reconciliation act of 2001 (egtrra) and the jobs and growth tax relief reconciliation act of 2003 (jgtrra). these acts decreased many income tax rates, reduced the capital gains tax, increased the child tax credit and eliminated the so-called "marriage penalty", and were set to expire in 2010, while increasing federal deficits by an estimated 1.5% to 2.0% gdp each year. among the many stated rationales for the large income tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 was the 2001 recession, which followed the bursting of the dot-com bubble in late 2000 and early 2001. further, some influential conservatives such as alan greenspan believed that the nearly $5 trillion in budget surpluses forecast by the cbo for the 2002-2011 period should be given back to taxpayers rather than used to pay down the national debt.