When I stumbled across this little bit of history I could do anything but think “tax and spend”.
In April 1942, when we had only been at war for 5 months or less, President Roosevelt proposed a top individual tax rate of 100%, declaring that amid “grave national danger, when all excess income should go to win the war, no American citizen ought to have a net income, after he has paid his taxes, of more than $25,000” (the equivalent of a bit more than $400,000 in 2021 dollars). The Treasury Department said this top rate would only affect 11,000 taxpayers.
Democrats in Congress pronounced it dead on arrival. Still, the top World War II rate reached 94%. But generous deductions and easier conversion of ordinary income into capital gains helped high-income taxpayers avoid paying that rate.
I understand that WWII was an extraordinary event that would and has had long lasting consequences. There was rationing and other hardships for all Americans, home and abroad. But 100%!?!