From 2000 to 2004, the average tax rate for all taxpayers fell from 15.3% to 12.1%, representing a 21% tax cut. The tax rate of the richest 1% fell from 27.5% to 23.5%, a 15% tax cut. For the bottom 50%, the tax rate fell from 4.6% to 3%, a 35% tax cut. As a result of these changes, the top 1% paid a larger share of the tax burden in 2004 than it did four years earlier, and the bottom 50 percent paid a smaller share.
The above is how Greg Mankiw explains the impact of the Bush tax cuts. But that’s not how Wall Street Journal reporter Greg Ip framed the data:
The data show that the average tax rate for all taxpayers was 12.1% [in 2004], up slightly from 11.9% in 2003 but down from 15.3% in 2000, due in part to the Bush tax cuts. Rates fell most for those at the top. The tax rate of the richest 1% fell to 23.5% from 24.3% in 2003 and 27.5% in 2000. For the bottom 50%, the 2004 tax rate was 3%, unchanged from 2003 and down from 4.6% in 2000.
That’s just another reminder that the WSJ has a center-right editorial board, but a very left-of-center newsroom.
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