Tax Cuts, Tax Hikes, It's All Relative

The changes in the income tax rates that took effect in 2001 and 2003 are referred to as the "Bush tax cuts," and you'll find more than one million results for a Google search of the phrase "Bush tax cuts."  Certainly, compared to the "Clinton tax hikes" that took effect in 1993 and raised the top marginal income rate to 39.6%, the reductions of the top tax rate to 38.6% in 2002 and 35% in 2003 were "tax cuts" (see chart above). 

But if you go back further and compare the Bush tax rates to the highest marginal tax rates under Bush, Sr. (31%) and Reagan (28%), couldn't the Bush II tax rates more accurately be referred to as the "Bush tax hikes"?  Of course, the tax rates were much higher before 1988, here's the full history back to 1913 in the chart below.  Compared to most of the tax rates between the 1930s and the 1980s, couldn't the Clinton tax rates also accurately be referred to as the "Clinton tax cuts"?