He points out that the World War II peak occurred when there were millions of Americans fighting the war, which presumably would justify a higher tax burden. The World War II line has become a Republican mantra. Many other GOP senators and House members have cited the same statistic in calling for tax cuts in the past year. The World War II comparison is for total taxes as a percentage of the gross domestic product, the nation's total output of goods and services. It is a broad-brush way to measure the tax burden that is especially good for comparing the United States with other countries.
Some economists say it gives a misleading picture of the burden on families.
That is flatly false. The World War II comparison hides the fact that middle-income taxpayers now pay lower rates. That is because the GDP number has been heavily skewed by new money flowing to the wealthiest families, economists and tax policy experts said. New tax brackets have been added in the past 10 years that capture a larger share of wealthy Americans' income at a higher rate. In contrast to Bush's World War II number, many indicators show tax rates are down over the past 20 years.