And that would be a severely flawed measure, confirming my suspicions when I asked you to detail it. Surely you would agree that an income tax hike that raised all brackets to 97% would be exhorbitant and probably the worst tax hike in U.S. history. Yet such a tax rate would be so high that it would serve as a severe damper on income earning activities and virtually kill off the U.S. economy, meaning that revenues collected by the government would severely decline from, say, the current rate. OTOH, we could adopt a bill tommorrow that only raises the top bracket by 5% and revenues would probably increase substantially. Now unless you are willing to assert that a tax hike of only 5% on the top bracket is larger than a tax hike that raises all brackets to 98%, I simply do not see how your measure could be sustained.
As for Lincoln and taxes, he was never President during peacetime, so we do not know if he would have cut taxes.
He was president for a month and a half during peacetime and used it to make good on his campaign promise to collect the new Morrill Tariff. He also held several other offices before that including congressman and state representative as well as candidate for several offices including U.S. Senator. Throughout that entire career he never saw a tax he didn't like.
Nor is it necessarily true that taxes have to be raised during wartime. We're in the middle of a war right now, are we not? Yet President Bush has consistently cut taxes since he took office, thus violating your assumption that wars and taxes have to occur together.
Now that you have finished talking in circles, the answer is that the tax raised over 100 billion dollars, hence, considered the third largest peacetime tax hike.
As for Lincoln and taxes, he was never President during peacetime, so we do not know if he would have cut taxes. He was president for a month and a half during peacetime and used it to make good on his campaign promise to collect the new Morrill Tariff.
That month and and a half was spend dealing with the secession crises.
As for the Tarriff, it had been passed by Congress.
What did you expect him to do veto it?
He also held several other offices before that including congressman and state representative as well as candidate for several offices including U.S. Senator. Throughout that entire career he never saw a tax he didn't like.
And just how many tax bills did he vote for?
Nor is it necessarily true that taxes have to be raised during wartime. We're in the middle of a war right now, are we not? Yet President Bush has consistently cut taxes since he took office, thus violating your assumption that wars and taxes have to occur together.
We are able to fight this war without effecting the entire society.
This war is not on the level of the Civil War or World Wars.