Ellington

Big surprise, but here's the evidence from the congressional budget office that Bush's tax cuts are hurting the middle class and increasing economic inequality in the country:

The tax system in the United States is supposed to mitigate inequality. But a recent report by Congress's budget agency provides fresh evidence that Bush-era tax cuts have done more to reinforce inequality than to redress it.

The agency found that in 2004, the latest year for which comprehensive data were available, the top 1 percent of households pocketed 14 percent of total after-tax income in the United States, up from 12.2 percent in 2003. That increase, the third largest in one year since the agency started keeping track in 1979, works out to an extra $128 billion. And yet despite that hefty gain, the effective federal tax rate of the top 1 percent decreased slightly.

In contrast, the share of after-tax income going to households in the middle of the income distribution fell to 15 percent in 2004, down from 15.4 percent in 2003 — the equivalent of a $29 billion loss. In that time, the share of their income going to federal taxes stayed about the same.

Link.