They oversold the short-term benefits of substantial tax cuts. The effects of lowering or raising taxes always take time.
That said, @ how dramatic these cuts were.
That sound bite from the farmer says it best.
"why would i hire someone I don't need?"
THAT is the common sense fact of it all. Again I go back to my bike example.
If I can make 10 bikes with one person and I can sell 8 bikes a month with that one person, all of a sudden I don't pay taxes, I don't hire another person simply because I can. If anything I try to fire the guy I was paying and hire someone at a lower wage.
Now there's an argument to be had that the bike shop could invest in marketing or invest back into streamlining the business, which may have some long term sales increases but as was the case for the farmer dealing with a set of fixed variables where his income is more a result of the market price and less a result of production tax breaks don't mean a damn thing.
Also,
We've seen what most companies do with tax breaks and it's horde money, particularly during economic hard times.
The "long term" argument requires a little too much faith and bad times to want to sit through IMHO