So said candidate Bush on Feb. 15, 2000. Four years, five months, and 29 days later, the media investigates the claim:
Today's
Washington Post:
Since 2001, President Bush's tax cuts have shifted federal tax payments from the richest Americans to a wide swath of middle-class families, the Congressional Budget Office has found, a conclusion likely to roil the presidential election campaign.
Today's
NY Times
Fully one-third of President Bush's tax cuts in the last three years have gone to people with the top 1 percent of income, who have earned an average of $1.2 million annually, according to a report by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office to be published Friday....
The new estimates confirm what independent tax analysts have long said: that Mr. Bush's tax cuts have been heavily skewed to the very wealthiest taxpayers. Those are also the people, however, who pay a disproportionate share of federal income taxes.
I do take issue with the NYT article: "Those are also the people, however, who pay a disproportionate share of federal income taxes."
Actually, because we have a marginally progressive income tax structure, those are the people who pay a proportionate share of the federal income taxes. It's just that wealthiest Americans have a disproportionate share of income.