Sandy, ‘you just don’t care’

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) recently proposed a 70 percent top federal income tax rate. This would nearly double the current top tax bracket, which is currently at 37 percent. Ocasio-Cortez fails to mention that the tax code is already steeply progressive.

According to the Congressional Budget Office: 

• The top one percent of households pay 39.4 percent of federal income taxes and 26.2 percent of total federal taxes.
• The top 20 percent of households pay 88.1 percent of federal income taxes and 69.5 percent of total federal taxes.
• The top one percent of households pay an average income tax rate of 24 percent while the middle quintile pays an average income tax rate of 3 percent.
• The top one percent of households pay an average total tax rate of 33.3 percent while the middle quintile pays an average total tax rate of over 14 percent.  
• The top 20 percent of households pay an average total tax rate of 26.7 percent while the middle quintile pays an average total tax rate of 14 percent.