Poor Rich People (And Those Who Do Their Whining)

Ari Fleischer has put out some tweets about how the tax burden on the wealthy has grown. Here are some examples:

@AriFleischer The share of total federal tax paid by bottom 60% dropped from 22.5% in '79 to 14.4% today. Source: CBO     

@AriFleischer   The share of total federal tax paid by middle income dropped from 21% in '79 to 16.5% in '07.

@AriFleischer The share of total federal taxes paid by top 10% rose from 40.7% in '79 to 55% in '07.          

The share of total federal taxes paid by top 1% rose from 15.4% in '79 to 28.1% in '07        

What Ari Fleischer omits is that in the same period (1979 to 2007), according to the Congressional Budget Office,  income growth in the US has been distributed as follows:

• 275 percent for the top 1 percent of households,
• 65 percent for the next 19 percent,
• Just under 40 percent for the next 60 percent, and
• 18 percent for the bottom 20 percent. 

Bottom line: The share of all income going to high income households increased, the share going to lower-income households decreased. The truth is, taxes on the wealthy have not gone up in proportion to their wealth or income. The actual numbers are pretty disheartening, but the economist Mark Thoma has helpfully laid them out for us here.