From the 1940s until 1980, the tax rate on the highest earners in America was 70 percent or higher. In the 1950s, it was 91 percent. Even if you include deductions and credits, the rich were paying a far higher share of their income than at any time since.
Under Ronald Reagan the top rate dropped to 28 percent. Under Bill Clinton it rose to 39 percent and then under George W. Bush dropped to 36 percent. As you recall, Republicans have managed to keep it there. Their avowed aim is to keep it there permanently.
Meanwhile, estate taxes (which hit only the top 2 percent) have been slashed, as have taxes on capital gains--which comprise most of the income of the super rich. In the late 1970s, capital gains were taxed at well over 35 percent. Under Bill Clinton, the capital gains rate was 20 percent. Now it's 15 percent.
Criticizing Reagan amounts to political suicide, Parry writes. Even many liberals are afraid to do it. And that helps fuel the destructive myth machine:
But the truth is that Reagan's current historical reputation rests more on the effectiveness of the Republican propaganda machine--and the timidity of many Democrats and media personalities--than on his actual record of accomplishments.
Indeed, many of today's worst national and international problems can be traced to misjudgments and malfeasance from the Reagan years--from the swelling national debt to out-of-control banks, from the decline of the U.S. middle class to the inaction on energy independence, from the rise of Islamic fundamentalism to Pakistan's nuclear arsenal.
All of these disasters are part of the Reagan Legacy. Yet, possibly the most insidious residue from the Reagan Years was the concept of manipulating information--what some Reagan officials liked to call "perception management"--as a means of societal control.
The manipulation of information has come to be known as "spin," and it permeates American society. We now are a nation of liars and cheats--many of them, including judges, in positions of power--and it started, to a great extent, with Reagan. Writes Parry:
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