Why can't we go back to the Eisenhower tax code?

[DC Al Fine]

Also: note I say "Eisenhower" but what i really mean is the 50s....  I imagine being a Republican, Dwight was not really a fan of those high tax rates. 

and does anyone know if there were tax cuts in 1953-1954 after Republicans had a trifecta?

Nothing material

[DC Al Fine]

From what I've heard, weren't those 50's tax rates very very high?*

Technically yes, effectively no.

Wouldn't we be able to have so much more revenue to do the things we all want to do: balance the budget, make huge payments to get us out of debt, and have the first surplus in 16 years if we simply just went back to a tax code where the people that actually had the most money to spare were asked to pay much higher rates?

Not really, no. See above.

[DC Al Fine]

To be less cryptic: You are decrying a combination of tax cuts and new loopholes arising since the 1950's and the 1980's in particular. The former is true but the latter is the exact opposite. It was much, much easier to reduce one's income tax burden through a variety of measures (e.g. More deductions, income smoothing, running quasi-personal expenditures through a business etc.) in the 1950's than now.  This resulted in next to no one actually paying the top rates.

I mean yes, the rich could probably stand to pay a few more percentage points, but the idea that the budget can be solved by taxing the rich is a farce.