What Barack Obama's Tax Plans Really Look Like

Oh look, here's a surprisingly fresh and original sentiment from an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal about the future of the Obama administration: "the Europeanization of America will again be in full gear, from expanding government control and regulation of as many things as possible, to raising taxes, expanding the size of government, and reducing the choices individuals are allowed." The article goes on to talk about higher taxes, unprecedented big government, etc. Bracing, original stuff.

Anyway, the good people of the Tax Policy Center released their estimates on the future distribution of federal taxes today (PDF), and in the year 2012 it looks a little something like this:

The vast majority of taxpayers will pay at a substantially lower effective rate than they do under current law, and at a slightly lower rate than under the baseline (since some Bush tax provisions expire).