Post-WW2, government massively cut spending, leading to a recession on paper, but an economic boom for the public. Taxation, public debt, and spending were all a far smaller part of the economic picture, and the "high tax rates" were for the highest brackets only, and tempered by loopholes galore. Income taxes for the working class were a temporary wartime emergency that never ended.

I'm willing to compromise on corporate taxes, since corporations owe their legal status entirely to political privilege. Beg the state for protection? Pay their protection money.