Is the tax revolt over?
Dionne, E.J. Jr.
her life according to them, not by any even worth discussing. dian, now at roughly $46,700, is smack arbitrary standards the world threw at When I turned...
...But most of ed because, for most Americans, taxes its peak in 1981...
...The median family's them, including George W. Bush, focus are not the burden they were in the income-tax rate, as my Brookings Insti- on big income tax cuts for top earners...
...DIONNE, Jr...
...The me- that his plan to cut income taxes is a in federal income taxes now than they sign of courage because it's unpopular...
...ton tax plan of 1993 raised the top rates percent in 1999...
...11 Credit than they pay in income taxes...
...Their burden is in payroll upheaval against taxes helped create the sury Department figures, the average taxes...
...But somebody is paying the bills...
...0 away from people in the middle and at © 2000, Washington Post Writers Group Commonweal 8 May 5, 2000...
...tax isn't the burden it once was...
...The tax rates on He's right about its lack of political the wealthy have gone up, but their reach...
...The middle class and the poor aren't tax-cutting Proposition 13...
...the top 1 percent have risen by 24 perOver the last quarter-century, this num- cent since 1987-from $379,712 then to ber has hovered between 17.2 percent $471,664 now...
...If political candidates proposed majorities that made Ronald Reagan federal income-tax rate on a family of cuts in the payroll tax rather than the president...
...The Congressional is taking a larger share of the economy Budget Office finds that in inflation-adin taxes (roughly 20 percent) than it's justed dollars, the after-tax incomes of taken at any time since World War II...
...The share of income taxes paid by the top one-fifth of pri115 has come and gone the bottom of the economic ladder...
...For most Americans, the income after-tax incomes have gone up, too...
...taxes are concerned...
...The example of a free and inde- me a happy birthday and to congratulate all families earn above it, half below it...
...Those lobbying for a big tax cut em- Even the best-off, who would no phasize a different number...
...On Elecpolicies to shift the income-tax burden tion Day these numbers will matter...
...were two decades ago...
...The Clin- cent in 1983, 72 percent in 1987, and 79 A the antitax movement...
...The idea that I had looked forward to telling her how rate is now negative...
...Families earning twice the median are paying E.J...
...mid-1970s and early 1980s...
...The share of the income That represents a big polit- on the wealthy, but it also gave tax cuts tax take from the top 1 percent, the truly ical shift...
...pendent woman that she gave to me, me on reaching what she said was the Families closer to the bottom-those my sisters, her own daughters, and who best age of all...
...Ronald Reagan's tax All of this helps explain why big tax cuts of the early 1980s and the 1986 tax cuts don't work for politicians now the reform combined with Bill Clinton s tax way they did for Ronald Reagan...
...churning stock market has produced a Let's look at the bottom line lot of capital-gains taxes, and the welloff are paying more...
...A !S THE TAX REVOLT OVER...
...taxes where they are, as long as the econWhat's changed is the distribution of omy (and their incomes) keep growing...
...The year 2000 is not the year and subsidies (through the Earned In- wealthy, has gone from 20 percent in 1978, when the last tax revolt hit full come Tax Credit) to the poorest of 1983 to 29 percent now...
...Middle- and tution colleague Bill Gale points out, is No wonder Bush says over and over lower-income Americans are paying less the lowest it's been since 1966...
...the tax burden...
...They'll say, doubt like an income tax-cut, have reacorrectly, that the federal government son for prudence...
...four at the median income was 7.5 per- income tax, they might win a stronger, The rebellion against taxes has abat- cent in 1999, down from 11.8 percent at if still muffled, response...
...A popular Here's the result: According to Trea- off the hook...
...Even the better-off parts of the midOF SEVERAL MKMN~ dle class aren't doing badly...
...14.1 percent, down from 19.1 percent in 1981...
...Rea- earners has risen steadily: It was 68 perwithout much noise from gan cut taxes across the board...
...Old enough to know what earning half of the median incomeknows how many others, has given us a you want and young enough to enjoy it," have never had it so good where income strength we are only now beginning to she said in her deep, slightly sultry voice...
...dian, now at roughly $46,700, is smack arbitrary standards the world threw at When I turned forty, she called to wish in the middle of the middle class: half of her...
...Polls suggest that many and 20.3 percent, and it's on the high- among the well-off are willing to keep end now...
...They get more in women could not be priests, for instance, right she was, but it doesn't really mat- subsidies from the Earned Income Tax she treated as beneath contempt, not ter: she already knew...
...Their income-tax recognize and draw upon...
...stride with the passage of California's working Americans...
Vol. 127 • May 2000 • No. 9
