Also, the word “controversial” will become more common again, such as “Romney’s controversial tax cuts were not the reason for the unexpected rise in GDP.”
““Romney’s controversial tax cuts were not the reason for the unexpected rise in GDP.”
I just wonder if those Romney tax cuts will ever materialize. Was just looking at the maximum tax rates during the last great financial crisis-the Great Depression. Starting in 1925 the maximum tax rate was 25%, which lasted until 1932, when it went to 63%, where it remained until 1936 when it went to 79%, then to 81% in 1941, to 88% in 1942, then to an astounding 94% in 1944 until dropping to 91% in 1946. It rose again briefly during the first couple of years of the Eisenhower administration to 92% before dropping to 91% where it remained until 1964 when it dropped to 77%.
I’m not sure what happened to cause the income tax to get so sky high a few years into the Depression, but I suspect that resentment towards the rich had something to do with it. If things continue to get worse, popular resentment towards the rich could lead to the same kind of tax raises once again.
That said, I’m not sure what pulled us out of the Great Depression, but it wasn’t reducing taxes, obviously.
And apparently it wasn’t balancing the budget either. Consider the deficits run by the government during WW2, which began with the US still mired in the Depression:
“But it was in World War II that the US really entered new debt territory. Starting at 45 percent of GDP in 1941 federal debt zoomed, reaching almost 122 percent of GDP in 1946 after the end of the war...”
To show how big that 122% of GDP was, the Obama deficit of $1.4 trillion in 2009 amounted to 13% of GDP.