And it turns out that many of the claims made by tax-cut opponents wither under scrutiny. The rich don't pay their fair share and shouldn't get a tax cut. According to the IRS, the top 1 percent of income earners pay more than one-third of the total income tax burden. The top 10 percent pay more than two-thirds. They pay barely 4 percent of income taxes.
History shows otherwise.
The rich paid more after tax rates were cut in the 1920s, and they also paid more after the Kennedy rate cuts in the 1960s. More recently, President Reagan slashed tax rates in the 1980s. The top 1 percent went from shouldering 18 percent of the income tax burden in 1981 to paying 28 percent in 1988. The top 10 percent saw their share of the burden climb from 48 percent in 1981 to more than 57 percent in 1988. It's true the poor don't receive a tax cut when tax rates are reduced, but that's because they don't pay income taxes to begin with.