From this perspective, a shortcoming of the US individual income-tax system is that marginal tax rates are high at the bottom (because of means testing of welfare programs) and the top (because of the graduated-rate structure). Thus, the government has moved in the wrong direction since 2009, sharply raising marginal tax rates at the bottom (by dramatically increasing transfer programs) and, more recently, at the top (by raising tax rates on the rich).
从这一点出发，美国个人所得税制度的一个缺陷是最底层和最顶层的边际税率太高，前者是因为福利计划，后者是因为累进率结构。因此，自2009年政府一直在以错误的方式行事，极大地提高了底层边际税率（通过大幅增加转移支付项目），最近又极大地提高了顶层边际税率（通过提高富人税率）。