tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839412.post1164608947921574218..comments2024-03-19T07:48:54.021-06:00Comments on Gus Van Horn: A Calvin Coolidge FilmGus Van Hornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05126749051688217781noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839412.post-22823665829555912122007-07-31T16:56:00.000-06:002007-07-31T16:56:00.000-06:00Thank you for this elaboration, which does indeed ...Thank you for this elaboration, which does indeed put into perspective my objection to the fact that the progressive nature of the tax remained.<BR/><BR/>Looking at it that way, Coolidge would indeed just about have to repeal taxation altogether to have satisfied me. We could probably cut the man some slack: Ayn Rand was only in her early twenties then!Gus Van Hornhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05126749051688217781noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839412.post-20454771789604144802007-07-31T16:17:00.000-06:002007-07-31T16:17:00.000-06:00Yo, Gus, you write: "Coolidge was not consistentl...Yo, Gus, you write: "Coolidge was not consistently pro-freedom on this issue:<BR/>'New Deal historians maintain that the tax cuts of the 1920s reversed the progressive tax policies of Woodrow Wilson. Far from it. Exemptions increased so much that by 1927 almost 98% of the American people paid no income tax whatsoever. When Coolidge left office in 1929, wealthy people paid 93% of the tax load. During Wilson's last year in office they had paid only 59%.'" The percentage figures are of dubious value here: The tax rates were peculiarly high (for the period) at the beginning of the 20s because of the taxes to pay for WWI, and they were slashed five times during the 1920s--tax rates on rich and poor alike declined throughout the period and increasing numbers of people were exempt. I haven't been able to find figures for gross receipts during the period, but here's a <A HREF="http://www.treas.gov/education/fact-sheets/taxes/ustax.shtml" REL="nofollow">summary</A> by the Department of the Treasury: <BR/><BR/><I>Driven by the war and largely funded by the new income tax, by 1917 the Federal budget was almost equal to the total budget for all the years between 1791 and 1916. Needing still more tax revenue, the War Revenue Act of 1917 lowered exemptions and greatly increased tax rates. In 1916, a taxpayer needed $1.5 million in taxable income to face a 15 percent rate. By 1917 a taxpayer with only $40,000 faced a 16 percent rate and the individual with $1.5 million faced a tax rate of 67 percent.<BR/><BR/>Another revenue act was passed in 1918, which hiked tax rates once again, this time raising the bottom rate to 6 percent and the top rate to 77 percent. These changes increased revenue from $761 million in 1916 to $3.6 billion in 1918, which represented about 25 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Even in 1918, however, only 5 percent of the population paid income taxes and yet the income tax funded one-third of the cost of the war.<BR/><BR/>The economy boomed during the 1920s and increasing revenues from the income tax followed. This allowed Congress to cut taxes five times, ultimately returning the bottom tax rate to 1 percent and the top rate down to 25 percent and reducing the Federal tax burden as a share of GDP to 13 percent. As tax rates and tax collections declined, the economy was strengthened further.</I>Adrian Hesterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13394227341130065130noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839412.post-69501899879900056012007-07-31T11:09:00.000-06:002007-07-31T11:09:00.000-06:00The first three are near-obvious to me:(1) Washing...The first three are near-obvious to me:<BR/><BR/>(1) Washington, (2) Jefferson, (3) Lincoln.<BR/><BR/>Off the top of my head, I'm tempted to add Coolidge and Truman to the list, but I'd need to do some reading and thinking to commit myself to those two.Gus Van Hornhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05126749051688217781noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839412.post-48446253237457801912007-07-31T10:51:00.000-06:002007-07-31T10:51:00.000-06:00Which presidents rank in your top five?Which presidents rank in your top five?coreyohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16490726687066047455noreply@blogger.com