You see, until a few days ago the Trump sales pitch was a bit different from past GOP arguments for tax cuts, involving (a) a novel invocation of the supposed benefits of massive capital inflows from corporate tax cuts, and (b) outright lies on an unprecedented scale.

But what I’ve been seeing lately is a revival of some more traditional, Bush-era fraudulence. Two items in particular. First, the claim that the rich pay practically all the taxes, so that of course they have to get the bulk of the tax cut. Second, claims of vast growth, because Reagan…

In reality, while the federal income tax is indeed mainly paid by people with high incomes, it’s far from being the only tax. At the federal level, most people pay more in payroll taxes than in income taxes, and the payroll tax is actually regressive. And state and local taxes are also a big deal, and they’re definitely regressive. Efforts to estimate the overall distribution of taxes find that the system isn’t especially progressive: the wealthy pay a lot in taxes, but they also receive a lot of income, and the shares aren’t much out of line.