Taxes cut, deficit up

Tax day is upon us! We have taken the opportunity to look into taxes and the deficit over the past twenty years. Although the Bush tax cuts have lowered tax burdens significantly for almost every income group, it has been at the expense of a balanced budget. Also see this viz on Paul Kedrosky's Infectious Greed.

There were two things that stood out about this visualization. First, although everyone is paying a much lower percentage of their income in taxes than they were ten years ago, the top 1% is paying significantly more of the total tax burden. Partly as a result of this, and partly because they are earning less, the middle and upper middle classes have paid significantly less of the total tax burden.

Reference bands: Subliminally showing the administrations in red and blue behind this viz adds another layer of analysis but does not distract.