Some historical context on federal individual income tax rates can help us understand the gravity of this proposed budget plan:
- In 1945, at the end of World War II, the top marginal tax rate was 94 percent.
- In 1954, when Republican Dwight Eisenhower was president, the top marginal tax rate was 91 percent.
- In 1980, the year Reagan won his presidential election, the top marginal tax rate was 70 percent.
- By 1989, the year Ronald Reagan’s presidency ended, the top marginal tax rate was 28 percent.
- When Clinton took office in 1992, he raised the top marginal tax rate to 39.6 percent, where it stayed throughout his presidency.
- Clinton balanced the budget and left office with a surplus.
- Bush Jr. chipped away at the top marginal rate until it rested at 35 percent in 2003, where it remains to this day.
Americans (Republicans and Democrats) used to take pride in paying their taxes. Our contributions made this nation great. We lived on less and paid our fair share to make sure all of our most basic needs were met. That changed in the 1980s with the onset of Reagan’s “trickle-down” economics. Reagan slashed the budget more than any president before him and drastically lowered the top marginal tax rate. And we found the trickle didn’t go far. Most Americans never felt one drop.
Read the article I got this from at the God's Politics Blog: http://blog.sojo.net/2011/04/12/the-ryan-plan-a-declaration-of-war-on-the-poor
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