Buddy Larsen @ 105: You’re missing the point: JFK was able to lower taxes BECAUSE Eisenhower’s high tax rates payed off significant portion of the WWII deficit. Second, the three recessions of the 1950s were very minor — overall growth for the decade was spectacular.

You want to trade Bruce Bartlett analyses? Yours is a little stale, from 1993, try 2003: According to Bartlett, Ronald Reagan was responsible for the largest tax increase IN HISTORY!

https://www.nationalreview.com/nrof_bartlett/bartlett200310290853.asp

“In 1984, Reagan signed another big tax increase in the Deficit Reduction Act. This raised taxes by $18 billion per year or 0.4 percent of GDP. A similar-sized tax increase today would be about $44 billion.

The Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 raised taxes yet again. Even the Tax Reform Act of 1986, which was designed to be revenue-neutral, contained a net tax increase in its first 2 years. And the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1987 raised taxes still more.

The year 1988 appears to be the only year of the Reagan presidency, other than the first, in which taxes were not raised legislatively. Of course, previous tax increases remained in effect. According to a table in the 1990 budget, the net effect of all these tax increases was to raise taxes by $164 billion in 1992, or 2.6 percent of GDP. This is equivalent to almost $300 billion in today’s economy.”

Now Buddy, here’s a question. Did Reaganomics, that is real-world Reaganomics and not the rhetorical version, work? Were the 1980s a period of rising prosperity for America?

For more current Bruce Bartlett, try here:

http://www.capitalgainsandgames.com/blog/bruce-bartlett/1447/oregon-tax-vote