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Highlights:
1931 -- Great Depression underway, GDP plummets, Hoover raises top income tax rate (ITR) to 63% to raise revenue. Debt/GDP levels off.
1935 -- FDR and Democrats raise top income tax rate to 79% in 1935 at depth of Great Depression to pay for New Deal.
1941 -- WW2 starts, GDP jumps and debt sky-rockets due to war production. FDR raises top ITR to 88%, then 94% and top corporate tax rate (CTR) to 40%.
1945 -- Debt as a percentage of GDP reaches all-time high at 121%. Top ITR drops a bit; top CTR stays around 40%
1950-1963 -- Postwar economy grows, Truman bumps ITR to 92% and CTR to 52%; debt drops. Eisenhower and JFK change nothing.
1964 -- Johnson cuts top ITR to 70% as economy continues to expand and debt continues to drop.
late 1960's -- Johnson bumps up ITR and CTR, Nixon restores previous values
1970's -- Nixon, Ford, and Carter leave top ITR and CTR untouched as economy goes up and down (but up, overall) and debt holds steady
1981 -- Reagan cuts top ITR to 50% during recession, economy picks up and debt grows quickly.
1987 -- Reagan cuts top ITR to 28% and top CTR to 34%, economy grows as before, debt continues to rise quickly.
1990 -- Bush I raises top ITR to 31% and top CTR to 35% during recession, debt still rises (but slower than before) and economy holds steady.
1993 -- Clinton raises top ITR to 39.6%, economy grows, debt levels off and starts to fall again.
2002 -- Bush II cuts top ITR to 35%, debt starts rising again, economy grows at same, established rate of 20th century.
2008 -- Economy implodes, receding as severely as any time since Great Depression. Debt/Capita goes up as a result of bank bailouts and stimulus packages, Debt/GDP jumps even more as a result of dropping GDP.
2013 -- Obama raises ITR and capital gains tax rate and the recovered economy helps Debt/GDP level off around 104%.
2017 -- Trump taxes office and despite strong economy, cuts ITR and cuts the top CTR to its lowest rate since WW2.
Conclusions:
From the Great Depression (1932) until 2007, the economy has expanded by about 2.5% per year, per person, in inflation-adjusted dollars.
The economy grew continuously under a top income tax rate of 90+% just as it did at 28%
The economy grew continuously under a top corporate tax rate of 50+% just as it did at 35%
The growth of the economy is not related to the top tax rates, but the national deficit is (as well as to spending, of course).
Except for WW2, the debt falls when the top ITR at 70% or higher and the top CTR is 50% or higher and climbed when it was below 40%.
The debt rises when the top ITR at 40% or lower and the top CTR is 40% or lower.
Taxes since 1980 have been lower than they have been since before the Great Depression, and that's the primary reason the debt is running away.
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