[EagleUSA]

What a crock. The country would have collapsed well before such a tax rate on the job producers and large tax payers in America.

[GUNGAGALUNGA]

Uhmmm....Paul Ryan aint an idiot.

[afraidfortherepublic]

Paul Ryan is one of the sharpest knives in the drawer when it comes to the economy. I believe him, and you’d better believe him too.

Look at all the South American economies that have collapsed over my lifetime. Those countries still exist, but most of the people are very poor. I can happen to us too.

[FreeReign]

What a crock. The country would have collapsed well before such a tax rate on the job producers and large tax payers in America.

You should check the Marginal Tax Rate history.

[SaxxonWoods]

I remember 91%. (I’m old). I also remember my Dad saying he was turning down work for the last couple of months of the year (ca. 1959) so as to not incur that tax rate. The self-employed can do that.

[Gaffer]

The top marginal tax rate before Reagan was higher than that. However, there were scads of deductions, reductions, etc. that have since been erased. I think we’d all better start self-identifying ourselves as minorities, under-represented minorities, etc. on EVERY piece of paper we are required to fill out. Myself, I just became Cherokee Indian - bwaha! NATIVE AMERICAN - under-represented....(actually am 1/16th, but what the hell).

[Oceander]

No, it wouldn't. The US has had marginal rates that high before. As set out in the table on this webpage, the highest marginal rate ever was 92% for the tax years 1952 and 1953, although that was subject to an effective tax rate limitation of 88% of "statutory income." Essentially, as the footnotes on that webpage make clear, for most of the 50s and 60s, the highest marginal tax brackets topped out at the equivalent of an effective tax rate of 87% to 88%.

Not, mind you, that this makes such an abomination defensible. The DEEM-ocrats must be permanently gelded politically before we allow them to do that to us.