We're not talking about incomes, we're talking about revenues.
income + tax rate = revenues.

Halve the tax rate and you'll ceteris paribus only have increased revenues with more than doubled incomes. Likewise with other changes of tax rates.

In 1982, the top individual rate was lowered from 70% to 50%. Individual tax receipts were just under 300 billion in that year. In the years that followed, individual tax receipts climbed until they were right around 400 billion. That year the top rate was again lowered from 50% to 28% and individual tax receipts continued to climb until in 1990 they were around 450 billion.

In 2003, the top rate was lowered from 39.8% to 35%. No effect on individual receipts that year and the next but climbing receipts every year until 2007.
Income taxes are very much pro-cyclic, and it wouldn't surprise to see revenues soar after a recession, especially nominal revenues. That's what I meant to cover with

"* A revenue increase not ceteris paribus, but caused by economic growth from period to period, overcompensating a small rates reduction."


Look, discussing counterfactuals is only fun for so long.
Feel free to read some more on the subject (such as studies), and feel even more free to take into account that there's an economic cycle, tax base and deduction changes play a role as well and taxes don't exist in isolation, but are interacting with other regulation and economic activities. Don't forget inflation, either.

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.



You probably won't get far with American audiences by telling them how the Europeans have been getting it right for "between 20 and 110 years" and boy are those Yanks thickheaded.
Come back with that when all people in the U.S. have a health insurance and when there's no museum showing human and dinosaur puppets in the same diorama any more.
We left those issues in the 19th century, where they belong.
(Adding more examples wouldn't make it prettier.)

Besides,
There are not only horrible policies, but also discussions about horrible policies between big lie believers and the unconvinced. The conflict goes on and on and on and the end result is that the U.S. is still discussing or unable to fix problems which have been closed cases in many European countries for between 20 and 110 years.
I suppose these discussions and policies could not be sustained if there were more interactions with non-anglophone countries.
was meant as a factual statement.
I don't bend or omit facts to please. I'm no entertainer.

People who don't like to be told facts aren't on my list of people who make me shut up about unpopular facts. That list is occupied by only a single female at a time, and no males.