Grassley disputes tax shift onto middle class

A report from the Congressional Budget Office finds the tax cuts since 2001 have shifted more of the tax burden away from the rich and onto the middle class. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, disputes the report. Grassley says the total percent of taxes that people who make more than $200,000 a year will be a higher burden. However, the C-B-O report says the people in the top 20-percent of income brackets saw their share of taxes decline. It also says middle income earners, making between $51,000 and $75,000 a year, saw a greater share of their income go toward taxes. Grassley says that’s “entirely wrong.” He says middle income people benefitted tremendously from the latest tax bill, especially given the child credit, marriage credit and other pluses. But the C-B-O report says top earners, who averaged $182,000 a year, saw their share of federal taxes decline from 65.3 percent in 2001 to 63.5 percent this year. For middle income earners, the share rose from 18.5 percent in 2001 to 19.5 percent this year.