The Tax Policy Center is a non-partisan think tank and joint venture of the Urban Institute and Brookings Institution.  The Center focuses on five overarching areas of tax policy: fair, simple and efficient taxation, social policy in the tax code, business tax reform, long-term implications of tax and budget choices, and state tax issues. Its online reports and articles are engaging, accessible and often full of helpful charts. For instance…

__2020 Tax History Federal Revenue by Type as Percent of GDP.png

Note that individual income tax revenue was below 8% of GDP during the 1950s and early 1960s, when the top marginal income tax rate was over 90%.  The top income tax rate has stayed within the narrow range of 35-39.6% since 1987 and yet over the same period income tax revenues have gyrated from 6-10% of GDP.

Now for the real shocker:

__2020 Tax History Federal Revenue as Percent of GDP.png

Mmmm…remarkably stable for over 60 years despite ongoing fiddling with the tax rates. Speaking of which:

__2020 Tax History Capital Gains.png

My main take-away is that Trump’s tax cuts haven’t been all that radical - just more tweaking within the historical range of tweaks.