Tax Burden Shifts to the Middle
WashingtonPost.com
Since
2001, Bush's tax cuts have shifted federal tax payments from the
richest Americans to a wide swath of middle-class families, the
Congressional Budget Office has found, a conclusion likely to roil the
presidential election campaign.
The CBO
study found that the wealthiest 20 percent, whose incomes averaged
$182,700 in 2001, saw their share of federal taxes drop from 64.4
percent of total tax payments in 2001 to 63.5 percent this year. The
top 1 percent, earning $1.1 million, saw their share fall to 20.1
percent of the total, from 22.2 percent.
Over
that same period, taxpayers with incomes from around $51,500 to around
$75,600 saw their share of federal tax payments increase. Households
earning around $75,600 saw their tax burden jump the most, from 18.7
percent of all taxes to 19.5 percent.
The
analysis, requested in May by congressional Democrats, echoes similar
studies by think tanks and Democratic activist groups. But the
conclusions have heightened significance because of their source, a
nonpartisan government agency headed by a former senior economist from
the Bush White House, Douglas Holtz-Eakin.
(more)
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