The Right has dominated the national debate on taxes for so long that certain facts have dropped completely out of the popular narrative. In their place, pre-crafted myths have been carefully inserted by commentators and politicians and are now generally accepted as truth by the citizenry at large. Although dkos readers are better informed than most Americans, it may be worthwhile to throw a few facts out there for the next discussion you might have with conservative neighbors/in-laws/co-workers.
Myth: Americans pay lower taxes now than they used to and Republicans should get the credit for that.
Fact: Most Americans pay far more in taxes than they did for decades after the income tax was established and Republicans have only lowered tax rates on the rich.
Here's a table I put together that may add a little perspective. It adjusts past brackets for inflation.
[Update: I got the raw data above (excluding inflation) from the Tax Policy Center and the Tax Foundation, which might annoy them greatly.]
If you look closely at historical tax rates over time, you'll notice something extremely interesting. Until WWII, most taxpayers' income fell within the bottom two tax brackets, even though the number of brackets used to be far higher than it is today and the absolute top marginal rate was higher for a tiny few. From 1917-1978, the number of tax brackets was never lower than 23 (the number of brackets from 1919-1921 was an astounding 67). What's more, the bottom two marginal tax brackets (which comprised the vast majority of most Americans) paid far, far less than they do today. It's easy to miss this because the income numbers for those bottom brackets look so low to our 2009 eyes, but if you plug in an inflation adjuster it leaps out at you. Unfortunately, the only inflation adjuster to which I have ready access is the Consumer Price Index (CPI) Inflation Calculator maintained by the national Bureau of Labor Statistics, which has been criticized for cooking the numbers to deemphasize inflation, but that only strengthens my point. Even the lowballed numbers show that low and average income Americans pay a lot more than they used to and the wealthy pay a fraction.
With a single exception, from 1913-1940 the rate on the lowest income bracket (comprising a very large percentage of the citizenry) never exceeded 4% (in 1918 it was 6%). In that same time span, the second marginal tax bracket did not pay more than 8% (again, aside from 1918, when it was 12%.)
So what, you might say--the lowest tax bracket today pays only 10%, not a tremendous jump, perhaps. The kicker is that the lowest tax bracket today for couples filing jointly assumes a yearly taxable joint income not more than $16,700. The income of the bottom bracket through 1940, adjusted for inflation to 2008 dollars, was never lower than $33,191 (1917) and was usually much higher ($42,485 in 1920 is the next lowest data point).
Not only that, look at the top tax bracket over those years. To pay a dime in it, you had to be seriously, seriously rich. Keep in mind that the top rate (like every other rate) is a marginal tax rate, so it only applies to income earned in that bracket, not income earned less than that, which would be taxed at various lower rates.
We have only six tax brackets today, and the top marginal rate of 35% is for income in excess of $372,950 (2009). As an unabashed liberal, I'd like to see taxes on the poor and middle class come down several percentage points and the creation of at least a dozen new brackets with significantly higher rates above the current top bracket.
As I've commented elsewhere, today the moderately well-off (e.g., a pair of married surgeons, successful small business owners, etc.) pay the same rate as the rich and the same rate as the ultra-rich and the Republicans try to take credit for keeping everyone's taxes low. But in fact, the moderately wealthy are not really the beneficiaries of Republican tax policy at all and the poor and middle class are frankly losers. The only real winners are the superrich, who starting with Reagan got the ability to avoid paying very much for the system that allowed them to become wealthy in the first place.