That’s true up to a point, but the fact is that the wealthy don’t pay the top marginal rate today, either. Some tax shelters have been eliminated, but the biggest one of all — the preferential tax rate on capital gains — is still with us. And with the wealthy declaring 50% or more of their income as capital gains, the preferential rate is the tax reform hill they’re willing to die on. As we’ve shown, except for a brief period about 1989, in the postwar period capital gains have always been taxed at less than the top marginal rate on wage and salary income.
Source: latimes.com – Los Angeles Times