Sunday, August 29, 2004

http://www.detnews.com/2004/editorial/0408/27/a09-255537.htm

I spent some more time looking at the CBO data quoted in the article. Its true that the top 20%, 10%, 5%, and 1% got a 3.8%, 3.2%, 2.3%, and 0.7% [sic] increase in federal income tax burden. However, the CBO data also says that those same groups had a decrease of -0.6%, -1.1%, -1.5%, and -1.8% in overall federal tax liabilities. So the impact was actually the opposite of what Luskin reported.
Please see:
http://www.cbo.gov/showdoc.cfm?index=5746&sequence=1#pt4
table 4 year 2004. Luskin used the 'Change in Share of Individual Income Tax Liabilities' sub table and didn't mention the related 'Change in Share of Total Federal Tax Liabilities' sub table.

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