Torture versus collateral damage; the bigger evil?

[Entropy]

You should also get your figures right. The 70% top marginal rate was lowered in a 1981 bill ( Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981).

Meanwhile, feel free to show the boom in tax revenue in %GDP, that is without lots of GDP change and inflation influences - for I see an income tax revenue slump in the early 80's here.

The dip in the early 80's was due to a recession. The dip in the early 90's was due to a recession, the dip in the early 2000's...you get the picture.

I don't know how familiar you are with the complex morass called the US tax code Fuchs, much less its sordid history, but what the Reagan reforms did was lower rates, consolidate brackets and eliminate deductions. The result was that revenue did not change at all and effective tax rates (which is what really matters) barely budged. You can look at the effective tax rate tables here and see for yourself.