This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Friday, May 28, 2021.

I'm Caleb Brown.

The massive new spending plans of Joe Biden

hinge somewhat on the massive new taxing plans of Joe Biden.

Cato's Chris Edwards discusses the claims that high-income taxpayers don't pay their fair share.

Whatever that means, and the practical consequences of trying to take their tax rates even higher.

Whenever I hear a pundit or politician say the wealthy need to pay their fair share, I feel like they are careful not to say what

fraction of income actually is the fair share. So when these people describe the wealthy people

are not paying enough, it seems pretty clear that they don't have an idea of what enough is.

There's so many leading politicians who claim that wealthy people and high earners don't

pay their fair share.

And frankly, it really is just nonsense.

So Biden and Senator Elizabeth Warren say that the rich

aren't paying their fair share.

Senator Warren recently said that the rich only pay a tax rate half

of what everyone else pays.

And the New York Times recently claimed

that for the past quarter century taxes on the affluent have continued

fallen. Now this is not true. There are numerous authoritative sources that show the opposite.

So for example, the Congressional Budget Office tallies up all federal taxes, income taxes and payroll

taxes and gas taxes, and they found that currently the top 1% pay 25% of all federal taxes and that

share is up from 14% back in 1980.

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