The first recession of the Bush43 years was more to do with the 90s boom running its course and leading to an overproduction of goods and services with liquidity unable to keep pace.

The Bush tax-cuts were a political giveaway for his core-supporters but presented in the guise of 'restarting' the economy, although in truth it was a deeply inefficient way to do it. The upper rate tax cuts did not filter down into the pockets of the lower-90% of income earners. To make up for this, the US Fed aggressively cut rates in order to get liquidity into the main economy.

This led to an overextension of credit, and thus a bubble economy in housing and the stock market. This is what mainly caused the second Bush43 recession to happen when it did.

I do agree that progressive taxation leads to greater stability and mean wealth in the longer term. Higher personal taxes promotes investment in research & development in industry, higher spending on social services and education (which benefit society and the economy as a whole). Another side-effect is that talent doesn't get sucked into the financial services industry where their talents are utilised in developing tax loopholes and hiding untaxed income. This talent would benefit society more in other areas.