I fear that you're the one with an "agenda" foggedinn, as the chart clearly indicates that the top 40% of income earners payed a higher percentage of taxes to the government in 2004 than they did in 2000, while the lower 60% of income earners payed a lower percentage of taxes to the government in 2004 than they did in 2000. As such, there are a limited number of possible explainations for the data given the reality of the changes to the tax structure between 2000 and 2004. As it stands, in 2000, there were 5 tax brackets with the lowest effective tax rate being 15% and the highest being 39.6%, while since 2001 there have been 6 tax brackets with the lowest being 10% and the since 2003 the highest being 35%. Perhaps you have another explaination of why the top 40% of tax payers are now paying more in income taxes, even though they are paying those taxes at a lower rate, and the lower 60% are paying less, including the fact that they are paying only a slightly lower amount at a substantially lower rate?
The only caveat to all of this is the fact that for those (married filing jointly) earning between $14,300 and $43,850 were still paying the same effective 15% that they were in 2000, however if one factors in the fact that the deductions available to them had been increased, their effective tax rate has still been lowered.
Married Filing Jointly
--------2000--------------------------2004---------------------------2008---------------
$000,000 - $043,850 - 15%____$000,000 - $014,300 - 10%____$000,000 - $016,050 - 10%
$043,850 - $105,950 - 28%____$014,300 - $058,100 - 15%____$016,050 - $065,100 - 15%
$105,950 - $161,450 - 31%____$058,100 - $117,250 - 25%____$065,100 - $131,450 - 25%
$161,450 - $288,350 - 36%____$117,250 - $178,650 - 33%____$131,450 - $200,300 - 28%
$288,350 - $higher ---39.6%___$178,650 - $319,100 - 33%____$200,300 - $357,600 - 33%
___________________________$319,100 - $higher---- 35%____$357,700 - $higher --- 35%
