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We talked yesterday about the non-partisan Congressional Research Service pulling a recent report that documented what many already knew: giving tax breaks to the rich helps concentrate wealth at the top, but it does not boost the economy. Republican lawmakers, led by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), had the report killed.
More information is coming to light.
Thomas Hungerford, the CRS researcher who produced the report, told HuffPost that he stands by it. "Basically, the decision to take it down, I think The New York Times article basically got it right, that it was pressure from the Senate minority to take it down," Hungerford said. "CRS reports go through many layers of review before they're issued and as far as the tone and the conclusions go, people who specifically look at the writing and the tone said it was okay. So it's not going to be that and as I can tell you outright, I stand by the report and the analysis in the report."
Hungerford said that he had never experienced suppression like this before....
For its part, McConnell's office insists "people outside of Congress" also raised concerns about the CRS report, but Tim Noah explained that these outsiders are apparently limited to conservative think tanks, including the Heritage Foundation.
It's important to understand that the Congressional Research Service, generally recognized as Congress' own think tank, has a well-deserved reputation for non-partisanship. The CRS is counted on to provide lawmakers with the most reliable and accurate information available, and the notion that partisan lawmakers can pressure, censor, and possibly even intimidate independent researchers is simply unacceptable.
In other words, we just can't have public offices' scholarship being stifled because Republicans find reality politically inconvenient. Our system of government isn't supposed to work this way.
I talked yesterday with the office of House Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Sander Levin (D-Mich.), who's begun an informal investigation to determine the extent to which the CRS faced coercion from Mitch McConnell's office.
But stepping back, I hope folks will consider the larger war-on-reality dynamic.
This was consistently one of the more offensive hallmarks of the Bush/Cheney era. In 2005, for example, after a government report showed an increase in terrorism around the world, the administration announced it would stop publishing its annual report on international terrorism. Reality proved problematic, so rather than addressing the problem, the Republican administration decided to hide the reality.
Soon after, the Bush administration was discouraged by data about factory closings in the U.S., the administration announced it would stop publishing information about factory closings.
When Bush's Department of Education found that charter schools were underperforming, the administration said it would sharply cut back on the information it collects about charter schools.
The Bush administration worked from a strange assumption: if we get rid of the data pointing to a problem, maybe the problem won't look so bad. It redefined ridiculous governing, but it seemed to make Republicans feel better to bury their heads in the sand. If a report tells you something you don't want to hear, the obvious move is to get rid of the report.
And now, we're seeing a similar problem. Republicans have adopted trickle-down, supply-side economics as the foundation for their entire worldview. The Congressional Research Service used reliable, objective information to report what most mainstream economists widely accepted -- if the goal is boosting economic growth, giving people who already rich a tax break doesn't do anything except make the gap between rich and poor more dramatic.
But, again, it's easier to bury reality than deal with it.
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But stepping back, I hope folks will consider the larger war-on-reality dynamic.
The Rachel Maddow Show.....the larger war-on-reality dynamic.
Well, that's it. Irony is dead. Please join me in a moment of silence for our departed friend Irony.
Yes, there's nothing like 30+ years of empirical, observable facts and evidence that prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that supply side, trickle down, voodoo economics is the greatest pyramid fraud scheme of human history.
Leave it to Irish Putz to throw a red herring. Give it up Pal, as with all republicans, all the time, you're on the wrong side of history.
Citizen...,
True, but they are obviously 100% convinced that they can make their own reality.
you sir would not know reality if it hit you in the face.
Sad that your reality isn't based on facts.
As Irish Putz proves Rachel's very point. Go ahead... pretend she's not telling the truth.
I suppose he thought that was witty. So the disconnect with reality is very deep indeed.
I'm still trying to figure out what psychological motivation there could be that would compel conservatives to sacrifice their country, their community, the economy, the environment, even themselves and the future for their children, all because they're afraid to be wrong.
It's a cowardice that's embarrassing to watch.
I'll give you one gue$$. Has nothing to do with psychology.
Next up:
The Bureau of Weights and Measures will now use Republican gallons, yards, and pounds.
(Which, if you happen to measure your purchases with the old numbers, will turn out to be quarts, feet, and ounces.)
I say the Rape-Public-CONs fall short, by any measure.
I come not to bury reality, but to praise it!
(Apologies to Wm Shakespeare)
Get Enraged and Engaged:
Mooch the Vote 2012!
;-)
Let's not forget their "editing" of reports on global warming, followed by their complete refusal to use the words.
No wonder their main "educational reform" is a war on "critical thinking." The ability to think is a threat to them, since their whole scam is founded on having a functionally-illiterate electorate.
Sandy had something to say about that "editing".
Conflicts with Romney's plan to shift tax from upper income to the middle class and social security recieptants to reach the revenue neutral plan he and Ryan claim to have.
Why did the CRS give in to the pressure from the Senate minority to begin with? Why are so many people bowing down to Republican pressure? What is the GOP leverage to get folks to suppress information?
Good questions. I have one more:
Doesn't the CRS have the same right to free speech as any other American individual or organization? It's not like they're yelling "Fire!" in a crowded theater.
That is what appears to be the investigations focus , we know the researchers are standing by it still , so who pulled the plug?
KJ,CR,IA ....
From the link on this subject yesterday
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/02/business/questions-raised-on-withdrawal-of-congressional-research-services-report-on-tax-rates.html?ref=business
it says such research is used within congress for the most part , but of course it would be available to the public if requested , I assume from the description of the CRS that such a report is edited by both parties staffs , before it is released , it passed the muster , then was recalled
When they say A NON PARTISAN ENTITY , I assume everyone has an input , and they go by real stats , are the gop going to out law the CBO next?
Well, for starts there's the House majority. Then there's the prospect of a Republican Senate next year. And a Republican Administration. Which, combined with the harm that various powerful people outside of Government can do to the job prospects of an economist, well ...
This subject of tax breaks for the rich to boost jobs, jobs, jobs has been talked about at great length since Bush left office. It fell on Obama to renew those Bush tax cuts and he did so, practically with a gun to his head.
What I would like to know is where our elected Democrats where regarding this report? Why is this coming to light just days before the election?
The report/ research is a day late and a dollar short! Obama could have used the data a year ago to make his point. Instead we had to look at that stupid deficit clock running at the RNC!?
It came out in the WSJ in September http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2012/09/14/report-tax-cuts-for-wealthy-linked-to-income-inequality/
Where's Darrell Issa? I mean, he purports a desire to rid the Congress of corruption, but he spends all his time chasing rabbits. If he were true to his stated convictions (of course no repubs are, they are all about smoke and mirrors) he would be on top of this one demanding an investigation. Alas, he is a straw man with one purpose; destroy Democrats.
Unfortunately, when the day does finally come that we have control of the House back, the Dems will have no desire to investigate the clear and obviously illegal behavior of the crooked Teapublicans. Why is that, anyway?
While I'm at it, Eric Holder is a patsy. He (with President Obama, sadly) furthered a precedent for allowing Republicans to get away with the most heinous crimes at the top of the executive level, yet the Teapubs continued to investigate President Clinton for over a year after he left office. Where's the fairness? After all, it's not like he was guilty of war crimes. He was guilty of using a cigar as a dildo and leaving a bit of residue on the blue dress of a shameless hussy. Stupid? Yes. Treasonous (like going to war on lies and outing a CIA operative?) Absolutely not.
The genie's out of the bottle. The Congressional Research Service caved to the rightwing minority extremists and now has stained it's non-partisanship reputation whereby it no longer can be trusted.
Some would say CRS was in a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" position. The prudent, nonpartisan course, however, would have been to stand by the report and keep it availabe despite pressure from either party, which is what I'm sure they always done in the past. Right?
Yes.
More likely, since they have never before experienced such pressure, they were not sure what to do, so erred on the side of caution.
Caution against what, though?
It is taken down from the congressional website but it is still on the Senate website.
The authors stand by their report. They demonstrate that it was the senate minority's office...Mitch McConnell...who made them take their report down but the dems still have the report on the DNC's web site. Now it's how much the MSM will report on it. Republicans don't accept reality anyway no matter what ANY report says.
At the Drs. office the receptionist told me that a female patient sat in the chair and told her..." Watch Obama when the pledge of allegiance is said he always looks away and mumbles some Muslim prayer under his breath..." I just had to interrupt and tell her there will never be any president who will not wrap himself in the flag. It's a requirement to be president. He wears a lapel flag pin and always pledges allegiance. Really, how could anyone believe such nonsense....THEN...THEN...AND THEN...I watched that video posted on Democratic Underground entitled "Oh My God"...and oh my God... here's the link... http://www.democraticunderground.com/101772451
This is what the Mayans must have seen when they stopped making calendars ending the last one Dec. 21, 2012...for this will end civilization if it gets close to the nuke trigger.
if that video wasn't so disturbing it would be comical.For the life of me I can't understand how this presidential race could possibly be this close. I can't imagine any woman Latino or, any minority voting for Romney. I sincerely hope people wake up and do their own research. I just don't think people realize that the entire countries future is at stake including their family. the writing has been on the wall for years, all we have to do is read it.
"...we just can't have public offices' scholarship being stifled because Republicans find reality politically inconvenient."
And yet that is exactly what the GOTP are doing, you've noted a few previous instances yourself! And that points to the larger issue of why the American public at-large doesn't know what is going on! It's how the GOTP keep the sheeple dumbed down, and why no one wants to talk about what is real! Isn't this how Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin started - first it was oppression for the "other side", then oppression of inconvenient facts and reality, along with conflating apples & oranges! Isn't that how Americans got hoodwinked into demolishing Iraq - for lies told repeatedly by the GOTP?
Come on people, put your thinking caps back on, it may be a bit scary, but only for a moment, stop drinking the kool-aid!
Republicans find truth politically inconvenient.
Problem is you look back in history and the press would shine a light on this.
But the corporate owned media has killed journalism.
TRMS does a good job, but they are a cable show and not main stream.
I do not have cable and if not for the Internet would not get to see the show. I had hoped the Internet would allow for information to help people. But in the end, we all must work to find the truth. And I think people think they are getting the truth from the corporate media. I used to believe I was.
I am always amazed at how in 1976 the movie Network was telling us that corporations run the world. And yet we do not listen.
"Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. In the first stage of life the mind is frivolous and easily distracted, it misses progress by failing in consecutiveness and persistence. This is the condition of children and barbarians, in which instinct has learned nothing from experience. "
George Santayana, The Life of Reason, Volume 1, 1905
Agree, Zora.
Would US citizens be sheeple, if we were allowed access to less muddied, less bias-filtered information?
Would US citizens be sheeple if those who seek to misinform were taken to task for their antics and publically asked to explain their points?
Would US citizens be sheeple if the kool-aid didn't come free with basic TV subscription and radio and pulpit and even employers?
The right has declared war on information, on free elections, on diversity of opinion, on positive change.
You were making sense and then you uttered this:
At that point, anything you have said loses its muster and everything you say after is taken with a grain of salt.
Sorry, but if it quacks like a Hitler or Stalin or a Mussolini and flies like 'em and lies like 'em then...well you know the rest. "Never to be used lightly" should never mean it is disallowed...especially when it is so obvious. The only people making this argument to begin with were probably acting just like 'em and didn't want to be compared...so they called it out of bounds. But an oligarchy in control of our government is exactly what Romney/Lyin Ryan and supporters believe in. Love ya.
#6.3 Bolbis
I twinged a little when I first read your referenced marks in Zora's post.
But the problem is that lies start small. And the people think that is not so bad. They get bigger and the people think that it is not so bad. At some point we need to wake up and say stop. These lies are not acceptable. Because the liars in Zora's example are real, and they did use their lies to control the view of their people.
Do we wait until the liars have taken us off a cliff before we try to turn around?
Sorry, I am tired of the lies and I see how the Republicans have been using their power to slowly revoke rights, like womens choice and voting. The way that ALEC is using government to push their agenda. And if we do not stop it now, when do we stop it? Do we wait until it becomes horrific like the examples that Zora uses?
Or do you remind the people that the lies are lies and lies cannot be tolerated.
There is always this very famous quote from Martin Niemöller, Confessional Church theologian and concentration camp survivor, about life under Nazi rule:
„Als die Nazis die Kommunisten holten, habe ich geschwiegen; ich war ja kein Kommunist.
Als sie die Sozialdemokraten einsperrten, habe ich geschwiegen; ich war ja kein Sozialdemokrat.
Als sie die Gewerkschafter holten, habe ich geschwiegen; ich war ja kein Gewerkschafter.
Als sie mich holten, gab es keinen mehr, der protestieren konnte.“
When the Nazis took away the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.
When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists,
I remained silent;
I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for me,
there was no one left to protest.
You need to watch out for such before it is too late. History teaches us how badly things can go if you allow unscrupulous people free reign, thinking things like "they won't really go that far, it's just the rhetorics they use to get noticed". You may be lucky, but you may not.
For Conservatives, "truth" is ALWAYS inconvenient!
Lies! Now, THOSE are convenient!!!
Truth always has a well known Liberal bias.
Hey Gulag, good to see you here.
We, as citizens, need to read the report. Anyone have a digital copy?
There's a link to it in this ariticle:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/02/business/questions-raised-on-withdrawal-of-congressional-research-services-report-on-tax-rates.html?smid=pl-share
What do they mean by "take it down? I made sure to download it as soon as I read about this two days ago, but if it's still available online, do they just mean take it from the CRS website? I'm naive.
On the Internet, nothing is permanently 'lost'... Once it has been copied by interested parties and disseminated, it can always be found again...
Which is the main reason NEVER to allow kids to send 'sexting' messages... Once they are out there, you can NEVER get them back...
With such a move, by such a man as McConnell, I cannot but wonder why he hates America! Why he doesn't see his job as State Senator as one where he strives to do well for all his State's citizens is becoming obviously transparent - he works for vested interests with nary a concern for representative democracy lest they cannot have their guy gumming up the works!
Mitch McConnell's crowd seem to me to be a bunch of oligarchs ala the Mussolini model! His politics is not healthy for us or any free and liberty minded people! -Kevo
And with your party completely taken over by this crap, you still think it's worthwhile to consider yourself a Republican, Kevo?
I do not need to end my historical affiliation with Lincoln, McKinley, Roosevelt, Eisenhower and Reagan just because the cancerous McConnell/Boehner/Limbaugh/Hannity/Norquist tumor has its tentacles into the heart of my party!
I'm hoping this election will be the chemo necessary to put down the cancer of racism, elitism, mindless obedience and the war on women brought to us by the carcinogenic blather of bigots, Birchers and Birthers!
It is merely a hope! And, liberals have no monopoly on hope!-Kevo
I was afraid all of the real Republicans were gone. The Tea Party/Taliban/Republicans are very scary. Good luck in retaking your party.
Countries that are Communist (China) or, countries that are dictatorships (Syria)routinely engage in this practice. This is pervasive throughout history, and the practice has never ceased. Even the media can be blamed for purloining their own “versions” of events.
The Nazis burned books. The Church “carefully selected” which books of the bible would suit how they wanted to control the flock. The Republicans are quashing a report that sheds an unfavorable light on trickle-down economics. The Media is largely owned owned by conservatives, and therefore, the media tends to “play favorites,” and reflects it in subtle wordings of the stories it tells. Objectivity is thrown out the window to please the master.
Are they comparable? Certainly. When it all gets placed together the connections are unmistakable. The Republican downward spiral into Fascism is prevalent in what the Republicans are doing with information these days. One look at a Red State’s approach to public education, and that should make you very afraid, indeed.
Now, imagine if they controlled all three levels of Government.
Have you visited this web site?
http://www.ushmm.org/propaganda/
Very instructive!
The Republican Party is now the party of Revealed Truths.
St. Ronald, He of Blessed Memory, was sent from the Land of the Wood of the Holly to bring the Lord's Word on Economics to the people. Anything that contradicts the words of the Prophet St. Ronald (or what today's Republican priests SAY those words were) must be blasphemy and lies straight from the pit of Hell.
Now that is Funny!...But very true!...LOL
These folks are there to do government service on behalf of the people. At what point do these folks, whose income is being paid by the taxpayers cross the line of treason? If your only goal is to obstruct the elected government from doing it's job for the people that elected them? They hide reports which indicate that their goals and programs would make the problems of the country worse. They chear lustly when an economic indicator is bad. They have done everything in their power to see that POTUS fails. When the POTUS fails the country fails. What is wrong with this picture?
WHY haven't the Democrats FORCED the issue and simply tell the CRS to put the report back up?
Senate Democrats have complained and made the report available on their own Democratic Senate website here.
Whoa there Dogjudge! Are you implying that the majority Senate Democrats actually have a collective backbone?
The white right started this when they edited their founding book for their corporate churches and patriarchy. They too had a problem with science and differing opinions. They also killed dissent literally and figuratively.
Romney/Ryan and the Republican leaders have become synonymous with Distort - Factually Challenged - Misleading - Voter Suppression - Racism - Intolerance - Obstinate - Manipulative - Callous - Judgemental - Exploit the Weak - Hatred - Greedy - Liars Use God to frighten people to their will and Party before Country.
Not the traits I want my children and grandchildren to admire and respect. I can see where these characteristics would be admired by the Regimes in Cuba, Vietnam, China and North Korea since that is how the maintain control.
In a nutshell - it's a complete fraud perpetuated by the rw noise machine.
Leadership my (!)
This is what's gone awry in journalism, too. In an effort to remain nonpartisan, or at least keep an aura of it, media carefully tiptoes around, trying to praise and condemn both sides of every story equally. It's a fail of epic proportions when the reality is that only one side is causing the problem. The CRS should keep the report up and post it on another million websites, take out TV spots, and send it snail-mail to every citizen of this country, because if one of the two political parties is espousing ideas that demonstrably hurt our country, I think that's something every citizen is entitled to know, labels and accusations be damned!
Dang it you people just keep wanting to burst the bubble of Methane coming from the right! Quit being so determined to seek that old "truth is out there" bone.Life is much easier if you just accept what the Republicans say and go along for the fall, er ride I mean.
Got a match?
Wow, Truth hurts.
Gee willywockers how much more of this Republican crap are we going to be asked to swallow? Romney is an empty suit plain and simple.Mitch McConnel apolitical hack so crooked he needs two valets to screw his legs on every morning. and Paul Ryan is so vastly disliked in his own state that he will not be able to deliver it on election day. Alright I will stop here before I tell you what I really think. Sincerely 12 BlueWhale
The CRS report had data for the Top Marginal Income Tax Rate and for the Top Capital Gains Rate, but admit that what' was actually paid was quite different:
Although the statutory top marginal tax rate was over 90% in the 1950s, the average tax rate for the very rich was much lower.And they have data for that, as shown in an accompanying chart: while the top income tax rate was 90% in 1955, the average rate paid was between 38% and 48%.
But their entire analysis is based on looking at whatever correlation there has been between savings, investment, and growth and the Top Marginal Income Tax Rate or Top Capital Gains Rate - neither of which anybody was paying.
The study is of no value. I cannot understand why the CRS didn't run the numbers against reality: what was actually paid. They had the data.
Perhaps the CRS did run those numbers against "reality? Perhaps the reason noone was paying taxes at either the top marginal income or top capital gains rates because noone was raking in enough to be subject to those rates?
However, you do realize don't you, that the money that might have been subject to those rates was still around; it just wasn't being funneled to one or two people but was, instead, being used for such things as increased employee pay, or to pay higher dividends, or support in-house business expansion or possibly R&D. Most importantly, however that money was not being used to engorge an already-obscenely rich plutocracy, because it was understood that concentrating wealth into the hands of a relatively few number of citizens doesn't help the economy!
That is the crux of the study's finding and it's what the Republicans don't want their fellow citizens to find out: An impartial research organization, on which Congress relies to provide non-partisan information, has produced a study that does not support the Republicans' contention that cutting taxes for the wealthy is the best way to help the economy.
Much easier to suppress a report than for a political party to do a 180 degree turn regarding taxes...
What is being paid in taxes is the result of various rates in addition to other elements of the tax code (deductions, trust law, debt treatment) which can significantly affect what's paid. The whole exercise was to determine if what was paid by top earners affected various economic numbers.
There isn't a consistent ratio between the statutory tax rates and what was paid (which could partially vindicate their analysis). For example:
While the top income tax rate was 90% in 1960, the average rate paid was around 42%. In 1995 the Top Tax Rate was 40% and the average rate paid was 32%.
The ratio varies between 42:100 and 80:100 in terms of the single variable (Top Tax Rate) and what was paid. That's huge and enough to completely invalidate the regression analysis.
The whole exercise was not to correlate what was paid in taxes to the growth of the economy, but rather if the presence of a low marginal tax rate for high incomes did correlate to increased growth.
It did not.
The amount of money collected doesn't matter here because we are investigating the incentive structure. Keeping the high income marginal tax rate low does not help the country. So there is no reason to do it and we can use the additional revenues.
I think the problem with having ridiculously high tax rates like those of the 50's was that no one who fell into that category would ever want to pay that rate so they started the inevitable tax code manipulation that permitted the very wealthy to pay at a more reasonable rate. Then the tax rates were reduced to reasonable levels but the labyrinthine tax code remains thus permitting the ultra-wealthy to pay even less taxes. Unfortunately, money is power-always has and always will be. That's what this is all about. Power. It's not about buying more and bigger houses or cars. That's what a middle class person would think about if given more money. No, for the ultra-wealthy its about buying a Congressional seat who will vote for lowering their taxes or getting rid of pesky regulation so their businesses can make more money so they can buy a Senate seat next.
removing double post
Thomas Jefferson
The biggest "inconvenient truth" ( a phrase Al Gore popularized while flying around the country solo in a jet, burning huge amounts of fuel, and making a Sasquatch carbon footprint) is that the U.S. Senate has not passed a federal budget bill in 4 years, despite the U.S. House sending them several to act on. Harry Reid won't let it come to a vote. Obama loves this as he does not have to adhere to a budget, when there is none.
Nudge, Nudge, Wink, Wink....it's a lovefest between Reid and Obama.
perhaps the most ostrich-like version of "kill the messenger" I've heard!
Though I suspect it's not that they don't want to know - it's that they know, and can't spin it to their advantage
Drain America First - A Climate Change Policy to Speed Disasters.
Trickle Down, Supply Side Economics has failed as the country's production capacity goes to waste over 30 years.
Summary
Income tax rates have been at the center of recent policy debates over taxes. Some policymakers have argued that raising tax rates, especially on higher income taxpayers, to increase tax revenues is part of the solution for long-term debt reduction. For example, the Senate recently passed the Middle Class Tax Cut (S. 3412), which would allow the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts to expire for taxpayers with income over $250,000 ($200,000 for single taxpayers). The Senate recently considered legislation, the Paying a Fair Share Act of 2012 (S. 2230), that would implement the “Buffett rule” by raising the tax rate on millionaires.
Other recent budget and deficit reduction proposals would reduce tax rates. The President’s 2010 Fiscal Commission recommended reducing the budget deficit and tax rates by broadening the tax base—the additional revenues from broadening the tax base would be used for deficit reduction and tax rate reductions. The plan advocated by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan that is embodied in the House Budget Resolution (H.Con.Res. 112), the Path to Prosperity, also proposes to reduce income tax rates by broadening the tax base. Both plans would broaden the tax base by reducing or eliminating tax expenditures.
Advocates of lower tax rates argue that reduced rates would increase economic growth, increase saving and investment, and boost productivity (increase the economic pie). Proponents of higher tax rates argue that higher tax revenues are necessary for debt reduction, that tax rates on the rich are too low (i.e., they violate the Buffett rule), and that higher tax rates on the rich would moderate increasing income inequality (change how the economic pie is distributed). This report attempts to clarify whether or not there is an association between the tax rates of the highest income taxpayers and economic growth. Data is analyzed to illustrate the association between the tax rates of the highest income taxpayers and measures of economic growth. For an overview of the broader issues of these relationships see CRS Report R42111, Tax Rates and Economic Growth, by Jane G. Gravelle and Donald J. Marples.
Throughout the late-1940s and 1950s, the top marginal tax rate was typically above 90%; today it is 35%. Additionally, the top capital gains tax rate was 25% in the 1950s and 1960s, 35% in the 1970s; today it is 15%. The real GDP growth rate averaged 4.2% and real per capita GDP increased annually by 2.4% in the 1950s. In the 2000s, the average real GDP growth rate was 1.7% and real per capita GDP increased annually by less than 1%. There is not conclusive evidence, however, to substantiate a clear relationship between the 65-year steady reduction in the top tax rates and economic growth. Analysis of such data suggests the reduction in the top tax rates have had little association with saving, investment, or productivity growth. However, the top tax rate reductions appear to be associated with the increasing concentration of income at the top of the income distribution. The share of income accruing to the top 0.1% of U.S. families increased from 4.2% in 1945 to 12.3% by 2007 before falling to 9.2% due to the 2007-2009 recession. The evidence does not suggest necessarily a relationship between tax policy with regard to the top tax rates and the size of the economic pie, but there may be a relationship to how the economic pie is sliced.