notes from Zinn

"Much of the public did not know, and were not informed by either political leaders or the media, that welfare took a tiny part of the taxes, and military spending took a huge chunk of it.... [B]oth parties were trying to manufacture an antihuman-needs mood by constant derogatory use of the word 'welfare'.... When government policy enriched the already rich, it was not called welfare."

And get this:
In WWII times, the income tax rate on incomes over $400,000 was 91%. Ninety-one percent!!!
The Democrats during the Kennedy-Johnson administrations lowered it to 70%.
Democrats and Republicans during the Carter administration (though over his objections) again gave even more tax breaks to the rich.
The Reagan administration, with help from Democrats, lowered the tax rate to 50% and again to 28%.

I guess knowing how our income tax is supposedly progressive and how, in reality, it isn't (because of the embarrassing gap between the very rich and everyone else), I had just assumed the tax structure had always been this unfair. But no, there was a time in our country and not that long ago that it was truly progressive. I can't even fathom 91%. There is no way now to go back and impose such a high tax rate, I realize, because the rich enjoy their low one and probably take it for granted. (It's much harder to take something away once you give it to a person.) Can you imagine how much money we'd have for social programs if we still taxed the superrich at that level?!? And it was brought down to a measly 28%! That's robbery. Currently, it is 35%, at least on paper and if I read the tax table correctly. Gosh, even 50% makes my mind go off in a million tangents, thinking of the possibilities!