Thanks to John Cole at Balloon Juice for this graph. Also, thanks to Matt Yglesias for putting it all into (super-snarky) perspective:
As we can see here, the United States has enjoyed three periods of prosperity over the past 100 years—there was the late-1920s, the late 1980s, and the 2000s. For the rest of our history, the entire period from FDR through to early Reagan, and then again in the dark days of Bill Clinton, we suffered from cataclysmic stagnation because “soak the rich” policies left businesses without incentive to invest. Our talented citizens unfortunately, but understandably, decided to “go Galt” en masse and the economy stagnated. [Lowell's note: yes, the 1990s were horrible; I just HATE peace and prosperity! Hahahaha. And what about all that crazy economic growth during the Truman, Eisenhower, JFK and LBJ years of 70%-90% top marginal tax rates? Damn dirty socialists!!! lol]Sigh. What is it with reality having a liberal bias, anyway? :)
And yes, please pay no attention to the fact that the three periods of ultra-low taxes were followed by a budget crisis (Reagan) and catastrophic global economic collapse (Coolidge-Hoover, Bush).
UPDATE: Oh, and which taxes have gone up to compensate for the lost revenue from slashing rates on the richest Americans? Surprise, surprise!
