The Fat Got Fatter?

One of the more recurrent charges against Ronald Reagan's presidency is that he cut taxes on the rich and raised them on the middle class. It was a consistent theme in Bill Clinton's presidential campaign. But the charge doesn't stick. In 1980, the last year of the Carter presidency, the top 10 percent of taxpayers paid 51.8 percent of federal income taxes. By 1988 they paid 56.9 percent of federal taxes.