U.S. Politics: No New Taxes -- For George

A TYPICAL WORKING COUPLE MAKING $53,000 PAID ABOUT 28% of its 1991 income in total federal taxes. Mr. and Mrs. George Bush, who reported a total income of $1,329,580, paid only 16%. The First Family did nothing illegal: their tax bite was similar to that of the other 62,000 U.S. households with annual incomes of more than $1 million. One big reason for this disparity is that Social Security payroll taxes exempted income above $53,400. Social Security taxes doubled in the past decade, even as the top rate of income tax was cut sharply. As a result, almost three-fourths of taxpayers...