The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age

    Who's entitled to a 35% tax rate?

    By Flavius on Sat, 05/28/2011 - 11:34pm |

    The top tax rate since 1945 has been 

    Years                 %                  On income

                             Rate                 Over              President_

    ______            ________         _______            ________

     

    48-49                82                      400,000            Truman        

     50-63               91                      400,000             Ike/JFK

     64                    77                     400,000             JFK/ LBJ

     65-67               70                      200,000             LBJ

     68-69               75/77                 200,000             Nixon

     70-71               72                      200,000             Nixon

     72-78               70                      200,000             Nixon,Ford ,Carter                                            

     82                    50                      106,000            Reagan

     87                    38                       90,000             Reagan  ( S&L fiasco” )       

     

     88-90               28                        30,000             Bush 1

      91                   31                        82,000            Clinton

    93-2000             39                       250K/288K       Clinton ( LTCM and DOTCOM fiascos)                                                                                     

    2003-08             35                        312K/358K       Bush 2( Subprime fiasco)

     

    If IKE's IRS collected 91% of any income over $400,000  why are the masters of the universe who brought us the sub prime fiasco entitled to pay only 35% now?.

    If an AIG trader were awarded a $2,000,000 bonus under IKE his after- tax amount would have been $180K. Under W , his after tax would have been $1.3 million

    .$180K wasn't enough to tempt him to propose a risky bet that might destroy the employer he was going to continue to need for next year's income. $1.3 million was an offer he couldn't refuse. One reason those bets didn't get made under Ike and they did under W. 

    Of course another reason they didn't get made under Ike was awards of $2,000,000 simply weren't made because the banks calculated that $180K of motivation didn't justify $2,000,000 of expense. Didn't compute.

    The sub prime fiasco wasn't the result of a deterioration of Wall St. morals or risk assessment , but of the increased after- return a banker could obtain if he took the risk. 

     

     

     

     

    Comments

    Sadly, common sense about the % of taxes has been obliterated by the sleight of hand work being done by the 'no tax cuts ever' Norquistians.  We have to begin to aggressively challenge them and the notion that cutting taxes is always the solution.  We need, I believe, to start laying our economic problems more forcefully on their doorstep.  30+ years of increasingly diminished tax revenues is one of the main reasons, along with unfunded wars, and unfunded Bush social programs that the deficit exploded. We have let the GOPs use the excuse that we're broke because of Social Security and Medicaid for too long.  Social programs would be fine, if the GOP hadn't been starving them of funding for 30 years. 


    by MrSmith1 on Sun, 05/29/2011 - 2:58pm

    The anti tax crusade is another example of the indifference to facts that has characterized the right for a couple of decades. I'd say going back to Laffer's appearance on the scene. Its' conventional wisdom is that low taxes create a vibrant ecnomy. Which is simply an unsupported assertion.

    Looking at the table above I seriously doubt that  anyone can  demonstrate that the 30  years from 48 to 78 with marginal rates between 70 and 90% were economically inferior to the following 3 decades of supply side economics.


    by Flavius on Sun, 05/29/2011 - 6:23pm