When In US History, Has Increased Taxation Been Good For The Economy?

cargo pilot: When In US History, Has Increased Taxation Been Good For The Economy?
Today, we face historical debt and increased taxation, with no end in sight for government growth and spending. When in US history, has massive spending and taxation been good for the economy?

Answers and Views:

Answer by Matthew D
WWII

Answer by brucec83
You can always improve things in the short run if you live off of credit. WWII got us out of the Great Depression and the high taxes (90% top bracket at one point) kept the deficit low. It was only in 1986 when they reduced the 70% bracket to 35% that the deficit really took off. Thank Reagan and Bush for that.

WWI,the Civil War, The New Deal and Eisenhower’s highway program were also examples. Americans like to mythicize the past, but the nation really sucked during the revolution and in the 19th century when the taxes were low and the government ran on a shoestring. If we hadn’t emerged from that era, the average American would have a third grade education and a life expectancy of 39 years, making us a modern third world capitalist nation like Somalia.

Answer by Mr. Smartypants
It’s easy to say ‘nobody ever taxed a nation into prosperity’. But in fact, the best times we’ve had in this country were times of sharply progressive taxation. The 1950s for instance.

Cutting taxes doesn’t really help if you can’t cut spending too, and that’s where the Republican tax cutters are very weak. Reagan and both Bushes never even TRIED to cut spending. They never even advocated any particular spending cuts. They behaved as if deficits simply didn’t matter, and that’s what got us into this mess. Tax and spend is better than borrow and spend.

Plus, every Republican tax reform idea just ‘incidentally’ shifts the total burden of taxation from the rich and corporations to the middle class. If you were working in 1980, making normal working people’s wages, Reagan’s ‘tax cuts across the board’ didn’t cut YOUR taxes, it raised them.

Answer by I love being trickled on
What massive taxation are you talking about? Do you realize that in spite of Bush’s massive giveaways to the rich his presidency saw the worst job growth and economic growth in 50 years? Voodoo economics is a proven failure