CG/101; re Eisenhower: from Bruce Bartlett’s compressed outline of tax history:

(snip)

Eisenhower’s fiscal conservatism carried a heavy price. There were three recessions during his administration–July 1953 through May 1954, August 1957 through April 1958, and April 1960 through February 1961–and real growth of the gross domestic product averaged just 2.5 percent over those eight years. In large part, that sluggish growth was due to high tax rates, not just on the wealthy but on the middle class as well. In fact, as Figure 2 shows, increasing tax rates on the wealthy led to increases in tax rates on middle-class incomes (defined as $50,000 for a family of four in 1992) as well.(40)

Thus, Democrat John F. Kennedy was able to run as the candidate of growth in 1960, promising to “get the economy moving again.” Republican Richard M. Nixon, saddled with the legacy of slow growth during the Eisenhower years, paid the price, loss of a close election.

(end snip)