further, income inequality can be measured both before-tax and after-tax, so the bush tax cuts primarily impacted the latter measurements. president bush did not take deliberate steps to address pre-tax inequality, which involves policies such as raising the minimum wage, strengthening collective bargaining power (unions), limiting executive pay, and protectionism. cbo reported that the top 1% paid an average total federal tax rate of 32.5% in 2000, 30.1% in 2004, and 28.2% in 2008. the top 1% paid an average federal income tax rate of 24.5% in 2000 and 20.4% in 2008.