Rudy recently made the following comment:

"This would be an astounding, staggering tax increase," Mr. Giuliani told reporters yesterday after a visit to a restaurant on the edge of California's Silicon Valley. "She wants to go back to the 1990s. ... It would hurt our economy. It would hurt this area dramatically. That kind of tax increase would see a decline in your venture capital. It would see a decline in your ability to focus on new technology."

It shows a complete ignorance of what actually happened in the 1990s, which was one of the best economic periods we will see in out lifetime.

So let's take a stroll down memory lane, shall we?

The National Bureau of Economic Research dated the 1990s cycle from March 1991 to March 2001 a full 10 years of solid economic prosperity.

According to the Bureau of Economy Analysis, the median quarterly increase in GDP was 3.3%.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, total seasonally adjusted nonfarm employment increased by 23,962,000.

The unemployment rate hit a low point of 3.9% late in the cycle in 2000. Here's a chart. Notice it decreased continually.

People were also making a lot more money -- at least according to the Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances:

From the 1998 Survey

In the 1998 survey, inflation-adjusted mean and median family incomes continued the upward trend between the 1992 and 1995 surveys; they also surpassed the levels observed in the 1989 survey toward the end of the previous expansion....

From 1995 to 1998, the proportion of families with incomes of $50,000 or more rose from one-fifth to 33.8%, while the proportion with incomes below $10,000 fell about one-sixth to 12.6%.

And from the 2001 survey:

Between 1998 and 2001, inflation-adjusted family incomes rose notably faster than they did in the 1995-98 period. The median rose 9.6% percent (2.5 percent during the 1995-98 period) and the mean rose 17.4% (12.2 during the 1995-98 period).

Under Clinton, the median family income increased from 27,900 in 1992 to 32.7 thousand in 1995, 33,400 in 1998 and 39,900 in 2001. Over the same period inflation increased 28%, making the total inflation adjusted gain 15%. Average income increased from $44,000 in 1992, to $47,500 in 1995, to $53,100 in 1998 to $68,000 in 2001 for an inflation adjusted increase of 23%.

And government debt as a percentage of GDP decreased -- something the Republicans haven't done in forever.

And Clinton raised taxes in 1993 on upper level incomes. And it didnt' kill growth at all.

SO Rudy -- please shut-up about the 1990s economy, OK?