The highest tax rate in the US as recently as 1978 was 70% [1], and had been as 91% (!) from the forties through the sixties. So I don't know why you assume that a high tax rate on the very wealthiest leads to Romania, 1980.

America's incredible post-war boom and burgeoning strong middle-class all happened at a time when the very wealthiest had very high tax rates.

[1] http://taxfoundation.org/sites/taxfoundation.org/files/docs/...