The latest numbers from the Internal Revenue Service show that we haven’t yet had as good a year as we had in 2000, reports the New York Times. In 2004, the last year for which the government has crunched the numbers, all taxpayers together reported income of $7.044 trillion, down from more than $7.143 trillion in 2000.

These government numbers show that, at least in 2004, taxcuts did not, as supply-siders since the Reagan administration have claimed, pay for themselves. Tax receipts dropped more than 20 percent in 2004 because of the tax cuts. Incomes rose slightly, when adjusted for inflation and population growth. The government collected $831.8 billion in individual income taxes in 2004, down from $980.4 billion in 2000 and $848.6 billion in 1997.

An administration spokesman tells the paper that the bubble caused it all and that the stimulus will be seen in the next couple of years’ figures. Maybe. But even if the taxcuts caused a rise for a year or two, the long-term result is negative for the Treasury. Which would be all right if there were off-setting spending cuts. But every time we get tax cuts, the spending cuts are mere tokenism, if we get them at all.

The new numbers also show that the cliche about the rich getting richer proves to be true. The bottom 60 percent of taxpayers are only getting 95 percent of what they were in 1979, and those who rank in the second quintile (between the 60th and 80th rungs) made slight gains. Most of the gains through both additional earnings and lower taxes went to the top 5 percent. Sooner or later all that financial stress is going to catch up with whatever powers that be.