... mixing apples (actual tax paid) and oranges (share of total taxes paid). Check the report again. Your experience ...

>> "$51,500 to around $75,600 saw their share of federal tax payments increase."
>> Jim, this is simply, not true. My tax payments decreased.

... is entirely consistent with what the report says. Taxes paid went down for everyone:

"... the middle 20 percent of taxpayers -- whose incomes averaged $51,500 in 2001 -- saw their tax rates drop 9.3 percent."

The point the CBO report made was that the share of total tax payments made by the middle class went up because the percentage cuts for both the upper and lower brackets were higher than the percentage cuts for the middle class. In other words, even though your tax payments went down, you are paying a higher percentage (share) of the total tax collected than you were before the tax cuts were enacted. It's a relative, not an absolute, comparison (somewhat esoteric, too).

Simplified example: three taxpayers, under the old system, paid $1000, $500 and $200 respectively (you're the guy in the middle and paid 29.41% of the total tax). Under the new plan, you each get a tax reduction -- the first guy to $800, you to $450 and the last guy to $150. You will now pay less in dollars, but a higher percentage (32.14%) of the total tax and therefore a bigger "share" of the total tax collected.

----- jim o\-S