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Hillary Clinton claims upper income earners do not pay their “fair share” of federal taxes. But new data from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) shows that the tax code is already steeply progressive. Clearly, a “Buffett Rule” or similar gimmick is a solution in search of a problem:

Overall tax burden

-The top one percent of households pay over 35 percent of federal income taxes and 24 percent of total federal taxes.

– The top 20 percent of households pay 88 percent of federal income taxes and almost 69 percent of total federal taxes.

Average effective rate

– The top one percent of households pay an average income tax rate of over 20 percent while the middle quintile pays an average income tax rate of 2.4 percent.

– The top one percent of households pay an average total tax rate of 29 percent while the middle quintile pays an average total tax rate of over 11 percent.