[WilliamReading]

oops, Taft was way more conservative than Eisenhower. Eisenhower was not even a Republican before 1952. He almost ran as a Democrat, but decided he liked the GOP better.

[Clemenza]

You are correct. It was Wilson who was the first to jack up the income tax to 67%, and it never went below that until 1982.

Ike was a deficit hawk (and the US went through a spending spree in the 1940s and 1950s for the obvious reasons), and should be commended for reducing federal outlays. His bean counting actually allowed for the Kennedy/Dillon (a Republican!) tax cuts in 1963, which reduced the marginal rate from 91% to 77%.