But the biggest winners, in percentage terms, would be people in the lower and middle ranges of the income scale. That was the subject of my epiphany, courtesy of a chart that initially appeared in last Friday's Inquirer. It was prepared by Inquirer graphics artist John Duchneskie, working in consultation with CCH Inc., a nationally known, nonpolitical provider of tax and business law information. And it is reproduced here today. The chart reminds us that the most accurate way to assess a tax cut is in relation to how much money you make, not how much tax you pay.
Economists invariably measure the tax burden as a share of income.
So it makes sense to evaluate a tax cut the same way. With that in mind, take a look at the numbers in the far right-hand column of the chart. They represent the cut, expressed as a percentage of income, for various taxpayers as of 2006, when the Bush package would be fully in place. For the working poor, the benefit is zero or one percent. For the middle class, it's roughly 3 percent.