Despite overall prosperity during the 1950s, economic growth only averaged 2% a year during Eisenhower's administration, and Federal income taxes remained extremely high at over 90%, although tax evasion was common with the porous tax code of the time. There were also three recessions: the first in 1953-54 following the end of the Korean War, the second in 1958, and the third in 1960–61. In each case, the Republican Party, which had begun the Eisenhower era with a plurality in Congress, suffered the consequences. In the 1954 midterms, the Democrats regained a solid majority of both houses and they would retain unbroken control of the Senate until 1981 and the House until 1995. The 1958 recession cost the GOP yet more seats, and the 1960 recession was used by John F. Kennedy as cannon fodder against the Republicans in his presidential run.