The answer may surprise you.
In so much of the discussion of tax cuts, whether of the recent one or previous tax cuts, we hear that the highest-income people got the biggest tax cuts. Of course, they did. They pay a disproportionately high percent of overall federal taxes. So it shouldn’t be surprising that they get the biggest tax cuts in absolute terms.
But that doesn’t mean that the highest-income people got the highest percentage tax cut. Reporters have generally not done a good job of making that point.
Surprisingly, reporters for the Wall Street Journal last week pointed out that the lowest income quintile received the largest percentage decrease in taxes. Why do I say surprisingly? Isn’t the Wall Street Journal the kind of newspaper that, of course, would point that out? The editorial page, certainly. But not the news pages. I’ve read the Journal multiple times a week for 52 years and I’ve always noticed the split between the conservative/sometimes libertarian editorial page and the left-of-center news pages. Indeed, the UCLA economist and now George Mason University economist Tim Groseclose established in his 2011 book, Left Turn: How Liberal Media Bias Distorts the American Mind, that WSJ reporters are among the most left-wing of all reporters for the major media. I reviewed his book here and briefly cited his evidence about the Journal.
Here’s what WSJ reporters Richard Rubin and Karen Dapena pointed out in their July 28 news story.
The average change in federal taxes paid in 2026, due to the new tax law will be:
-15.1% for the lowest quintile
-14.9% for the second quintile
-12.6% for the middle quintile
-11.1% for the fourth quintile
-9.2% for the 80-90 percentile
-9.5% for the 90-95 percentile
-11.2% for the 95-99 percentile
-7.1% for the top 1%.
UPDATE: I should clarify that the discussion above is of the tax legislation that Congress passed and the president signed. It does not include the tariffs that the president unilaterally imposed.
