The Democrats have officially taken over the House for the first time in eight years, and among the swarms of far-left “fresh faces” is democratic socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who is proposing, among many other things, a steep increase in the federal income tax rate, which would see the top bracket jump from 37 to 70%.
That proposal is winning applause from some of Ocasio-Cortez’s fellow hardcore progressives, but does the U.S. really need more progressive tax rates? Americans for Tax Reform provided some highlights of how the current tax burden plays out among some of the key brackets, and it turns out that top earners already pay their “fair share.”
The top 20% of households paid 88.1% of federal income taxes, and 69.5% of total federal taxes in 2015, ATR notes, citing the most recent numbers provided by the Congressional Budget Office. That tax burden was higher than the total share of income enjoyed by that group: 55% before taxes and 48.3% after taxes.
The top quintile paid an average federal tax rate of 26.7% that year, reducing the group’s average income from $292,000 to $215,000. (The top 81-90% of earners averaged $157,000 and saw that reduced to $125,000.) – READ MORE