Comments on: News Flash: People With Income Pay Income Taxes

By: Petrified Truth

Petrified Truth — Sun, 15 Aug 2004 00:10:38 +0000

Fun with data
Billionaire-by-marriage John Kerry has been criticizing the Bush administration (again) over the President's program of tax cuts, using a new study from the Congressional Budget Office as fuel for the fire. Democratic Sen. John Kerry on Friday assaile...

By: Who Can Really Say?

Who Can Really Say? — Sat, 14 Aug 2004 01:25:52 +0000

Squeal Like a Pig
Outside the Beltway on income taxes. We actually commissioned a government study to demonstrate that, given an across-the-board tax cut, the people who pay the most taxes are going to get the biggest cut? That a guy who pays...

By: Common Sense and Wonder

Common Sense and Wonder — Fri, 13 Aug 2004 22:29:54 +0000

Tax Cut and the Rich
Much has been made today of the revelation in a new CBO study that the Bush tax cut *gasp* let the 'rich' pay less in...

By: Dodd

Dodd — Fri, 13 Aug 2004 16:54:40 +0000

Not "disproportionately" - "proportionately" (to their income). Isn't that the whole point?

By: James Joyner

James Joyner — Fri, 13 Aug 2004 16:15:47 +0000

Bill,

Yes, the percentage of the overall tax burden going borne by the middle quintile rose 0.2%. Of course, the burden of the bottom quintile actually declined slightly as well.

I'm not analyzing the utility of tax cuts, just that the natural consequence of an across-the-board tax cut in a steeply progressive system is to redistribute the burden among the quintiles. There's no surprise there--the people paying the most taxes will benefit disproportionately.

Of course, we're comparing quintiles and not people. People don't necessarily remain fixed in one quintile their whole lives.

By: Bill from INDC Journal

Bill from INDC Journal — Fri, 13 Aug 2004 16:05:13 +0000

We actually commissioned a government study to demonstrate that, given an across-the-board tax cut, the people who pay the most taxes are going to get the biggest cut? I may be misinterpreting, but your analyis seems to be doing a little of the same thing that the media is doing; cherrypicking or selectively interpreting a point and applying it to buttress your angle. In my interpretation (of primarily the WaPo article), the point is, the percentage of the overall tax burden shifted to the middle 20%. So when the taxes were cut, not everyone benefited in equal proportions, and I don't mean the old argument that "of course richer people are going to save more money, they naturally make and pay more", which one COULD interpret as YOUR point. The real point of these articles is: the tax cuts have made teh real marginal tax rates LESS PROGRESSIVE, which upsets many people's sensibilities. re: Further, if the guy making $57,000 a year gets a tax cut of $1090, does he really think it's a tax hike because he's now paying a slightly higher share of the overall tax burden than he once was? From the point-of-view that state and local taxes may increase, or the average wage owner is associated with a ceratin amount of benefit from and responsibilty for the government's budget, yes. You can argue that the top 1% put that money to work as investment capital and drive the standard of living and real wages higher for wage earners as a whole, but I'm not feelin' your analysis.

By: Ipse Dixit

Ipse Dixit — Fri, 13 Aug 2004 15:56:47 +0000

CBO Determines Tax Burden Now Infinitesimally Less Unfair
Accurate though it is, that is not, of course, the headline the media chose to put atop this story.... Washington...

By: KipEsquire

KipEsquire — Fri, 13 Aug 2004 15:17:56 +0000

I must need new glasses, because I don't see much of a difference between the 2001 and 2004 numbers. WaPo and NYT are getting all uppity about a total of 1 percentage point for the third and fourth quintiles (which is how I would define "middle class)?

I assure you, people in those segments are far more concerned with Social Security taxes and state & local taxes, not with this (microscopically) changing distribution.

By: Sha Ka Ree

Sha Ka Ree — Fri, 13 Aug 2004 14:20:23 +0000

CBO Report
Expect lots of spin today because of a new CBO report showing how the tax burden changed due to the Bush tax cuts. The middle class percent of taxes has "increased", even though everyone got a tax cut. The media is helping the Democrats nicely. Look ...

By: American Cuban in Miami

American Cuban in Miami — Fri, 13 Aug 2004 14:11:15 +0000

Who cares this still shows that the top 20% of Americans pay the taxes for 64% of the population. And the top 30% pay 80% of the taxes. These progressive taxing advocates want to make this an issue?
And yet its the bottom 80% that use more public services than the top 20%. From unemployement,to welfare, public education, medicaid, HUD, Disablity Benefits.

It's amazing how the welfare state continues to exist in plain site.