So much for “tax cuts for the rich”! As Art and Steve explain, the tax share of the rich jumped under the Trump tax cuts, as expected based on the historical record:
When Ronald Reagan was elected president the top income tax rate in the United States stood at 70%.
The wealthiest 1% of tax filers paid roughly 19% of the income tax.
When Reagan cut that rate to 50% and then all the way down to 28% in 1987 (a tax reform that nearly every senator — including Al Gore, Ted Kennedy and Joe Biden — voted for), the share of taxes paid by the rich rose to 25%.
Think about that: When the highest tax rate was 70%, the rich paid less than 20% of the tax burden.
With today’s tax rate of 37%, the top 1% pay almost half of all income taxes.
And when the top tax rate stood at 91% in the early 1960s, before the Kennedy tax cuts, the top 1% paid only 15% of the taxes.