The End of Welfare as We Don't Know It

[Brad De Long]

>Item: in 1991 with an income of $1,324,456, George Bush paid $239,083 in
>federal, state, and local taxes, for an effective tax rate of 18 percent.
>A typical middle-income family in Oregon making an AGI of $43,690 paid 26
>percent of their income in taxes (excluding things like gas taxes and
>such). (Who Really Pays the Taxes? p. 295.)

Ummm...

I think that that was the year that George and Barbara gave the royalties
from _Millie's Book_ to charity. Not a representative year for the Bushes.
Not a representative upper-income couple.

Barlett and Steele are *extremely* unreliable. Use their numbers and
anecdotes and you may well wind up with a lot of egg on your face...

Brad DeLong