You're right, the people that were in charge then, are pretty much dead now.
Yes. They have to be as old as Byrd (or as Gerald Ford was Ford was a member of the House when Truman sent troops to Korea to "fight bandits")
Defense Arming to Require Taxing 'Until it Hurts', Lima News (Lima, OH), January, 1951
President Truman said today the nation must be taxed "until it hurts" to arm the free world against the menace of Communist aggression.Secretary of the Treasury Snyder, it was learned, believes despite widespread recommendations for "pay-as-you-go" financing, taxation steep enough to pay out of hand for the huge re-armament effort would rip the nation's economic fabric.
Any hope that sizeable new federal deficits could be avoided by increased taxes appeared to be fading as members of the new Congress sized up probable outlay and came to a tentative conclusion that the government will need somewhere in the region of $75,000,000,000 in the coming fiscal year. That is $25,000,000,000 more than the record $50,000,000,000 collections of this year.
The President gave his warning "it is necessary to tax until it hurts" in a conciliatory letter to Sen. Byrd (D-Va), with whom Mr. Truman has often clashed. The senator made the letter public today.
The letter immediately aroused talk of a possible nation retail sales tax, or other forms of taxation on all or most of the nation's commerce.
Byrd did not advocate any specific tax plan in giving his opinion of what might be necessary if the national budget hits $75,000,000,000 to $80,000,000,000 a year.