I.R.S. Says Americans' Income Shrank for 2 Consecutive Years

A most damning admission from the mother of all newspapers...

Falling incomes, rather than tax cuts, appear to count for the greatest share of the decline in income taxes paid. That is because the higher one stood on the income ladder the greater the impact was likely to be from the stock market crunch.

The implication, then, that the Bush tax cuts were disproportionately targeted at the rich seems to be made much less potent by the fact that the rich lost most of the money in the previous years.

The budget deficit too would have to be seen as a function in part of the lower total government revenue from income taxes paid on a smaller total income tax amount, i.e. the economic pie shrunk.

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