Top Income Tax Rate was 91% during the 8 YEARS of the Republican Eisenhower terms,

[supraTruth]

at a time when we became the MOST PROSPEROUS NATION THIS PLANET HAS EVER WITNESSED!

Twitter CNBC to TELL THEM to remind the CONS in their Debate tonight!

If enough people tell them, MAYbe they will mention it!

[Cirque du So-What]

1. I wouldn't bet on it

I believe they could get 100 brazillion tweets and the question still wouldn't make the cut.

[supraTruth]

2. TRY!

Selected Historical income tax rates (1913–2011)
Partial History of
U.S. Federal Marginal Income Tax Rates
Income First Top Bracket
Year Brackets Bracket Rate Income Adj. 2011 Comment
1913 7 1% 7% $500,000 $11.3M First permanent income tax
1917 21 2% 67% $2,000,000 $35M World War I financing
1925 23 1.5% 25% $100,000 $1.28M Post war reductions
1932 55 4% 63% $1,000,000 $16.4M Depression era
1936 31 4% 79% $5,000,000 $80.7M
1941 32 10% 81% $5,000,000 $76.3M World War II
1942 24 19% 88% $200,000 $2.75M Revenue Act of 1942
1944 24 23% 94% $200,000 $2.54M Individual Income Tax Act of 1944
1946 24 20% 91% $200,000 $2.30M
1954 24 20% 91% $200,000 $1.67M
1964 26 16% 77% $400,000 $2.85M Tax reduction during Vietnam war
1965 25 14% 70% $200,000 $1.42M
1981 16 14% 70% $212,000 $532k Reagan era tax cuts
1982 14 12% 50% $106,000 $199k "
1987 5 11% 38.5% $90,000 $178k "
1988 2 15% 28% $29,750 $56k "
1991 3 15% 31% $82,150 $135k
1993 5 15% 39.6% $250,000 $388k
2003 6 10% 35% $311,950 $380k Bush era tax cuts
2011 6 10% 35% $379,150 $379k

[Cirque du So-What]

4. Alright, I did

but I'm not betting the farm on that question's inclusion tonight...not that I'll be watching anyway. I'd sooner stamp out flaming bags of poo than watch those clowns try to out-crazy each other.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

3. Eisenhower wouldn't wipe his ass with Rick Perry's hair

Can you see any modern day Republican sending in federal government troops against state police the way Eisenhower sent the 101st airborne into Little Rock to keep the governor from shutting down the schools and keeping them segregated?

[Philosopher King]

5. But there were even more loopholes then, than there are now.

If, by the time you get to the AGI line, there is nothing left to tax, the difference between a tax rate of 0% or 100% is $0.00.

[soryang]

6. The purpose of high marginal rates is commerce not revenues

The principle of progressive taxation is "use it or lose it." You can keep your capital in your business and take advantage of credits and deductions or give it to Uncle Sam.

Currently because marginal rates are too low, and there are no capital export controls, speculation, hoarding, and capital flight are the order of the day. So there is a difference between the lowest and highest rates. Not all "loopholes" are evil.

Their should be constructive attribution rules for corporate income earned by controlled corporate subsidiaries overseas, and offshore accounting games with shell corporations. Corporations aren't going to invest in the US willingly.

The power to tax is the power to destroy.