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Opinion
Michael R. Strain

The Rich Really Do Pay Higher Taxes Than You

By any measure, the overall U.S. tax system is progressive.

Taxed.

Taxed.

Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg

For Democrats, the Overton window — the range of ideas that are not considered extreme — has shifted markedly to the left in the last few years. It now seems that the window for discourse about economic reality is moving as well.

Take the headline on David Leonhardt’s recent New York Times column, summarizing the research of economists Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman, who are advisers to Elizabeth Warren: “The rich really do pay lower taxes than you.”