An Avalanche of Misinformation

An Avalanche of Misinformation: "The Bigger Share of Taxes?
Kerry claims in an ad that appeared this week that 'the middle class is paying the bigger share of America's tax burden and the wealthiest are paying less.' Actually, all income groups have seen their burden reduced . Kerry's wording could lead some to think middle-income taxpayers are paying more of the tax burden than upper-income taxpayers, which is false.
As we pointed out before in an article on another Kerry ad, figures from the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center show that even after Bush's tax cuts, the most affluent 20 percent of taxpayers still pay 63 percent of all US taxes, including income, payroll and excise taxes. Those in the middle 20 percent pay 10.5 percent, a much smaller share. So, strictly speaking, the highest -income taxpayers still pay by far the larger share of taxes than the other 80 percent.
What Kerry has said previously is that middle-income taxpayers pay a larger share -- meaning a larger share than they did before and not a larger share than more affluent groups. And it's true that the middle 20 percent has seen their share of the tax burden go up -- by 2/10ths of one percent -- even as their taxes have come down. Those between the top and middle groups have seen their share of the burden go up 0.7 percent. On the other hand, those in the lowest two groups have seen very slight declines in the share of all taxes they pay as well as in the amount of taxes they pay, something Kerry doesn't mention when talking about the burden on the 'middle.'"

I always had a problem with the way Kerry kept saying that about the taxes. I know that I am not in the top earners and I got a tax cut, so what's the problem here?