tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3590628055918372867.post7592652214962675799..comments2023-03-10T03:23:19.853-05:00Comments on Bozat's BarcaLounge: Progressive and Regressive Taxation in the United States: Who’s Really Paying (and Not Paying) their Fair Share?Bozat, The Laughing Prophethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10798722678204971908noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3590628055918372867.post-765206443237490032011-11-04T11:30:40.060-04:002011-11-04T11:30:40.060-04:00It was an outright lie for the Center on Budget an...It was an outright lie for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities to claim that “At a [Senate Finance Committee] hearing last month [May 3rd] . . . Cato Institute Senior Fellow Alan Reynolds asserted, ‘Poor people don’t pay taxes in this country.’” What I said was, “poor people don’t pay federal income taxes.” It was in the context of criticizing President Bush (as I did in The Wall Street Journal in 2001) for cutting the lowest tax rate from 15% to 10% in 2001. That saves me and every other high-income couple $850 a year, thus losing some $70 billion a year in revenue with zero bang for the buck (in terms of incentives). Using CBO estimates, my testimony (Google “The Increasing Progressivity of U.S. Taxes and the Shrinking Tax Base’) proved that federal income taxes became much more progressive from 1979 to 2007, with the $55 billion earned income tax credit more than offsetting an increase in Social Security taxes. State and local taxes differ by location, of course, but neither the CBO nor the U.S. government deals with that issue.Alan Reynoldshttp://www.cato.org/people/alan-reynoldsnoreply@blogger.com