Were I single with an income between $27,050 and $65,550 - which, by coincidence, I am - I might look askance at getting only a 3-point drop (28 to 25) in my top marginal rate. However, since I (1) understand math and (2) used to work for H&R Block and therefore sort of understand brackets, I can figure out that at the $27,050 taxable-income level, my taxes go down $300 ($4058 to $3758) under the Bush proposal, a drop of 7.4 percent. It won't buy me a Lexus, but $300 is nothing to sneer at.

Meanwhile, someone making half this much - $13,525 - gets (yes!) $300. And in this case, it's a drop of 14.8 percent ($2028 to $1728).

Let's scale our original example up tenfold, to $270,500. The Bush plan gives this guy, by my calculations, a break of $10,019 ($85,340 to $75,321), around 11.7 percent. Still not Lexus material. And remember our poor fellow making 13.5k got almost a 15-percent cut. He's paying an effective rate of 12.8 percent, whereas our theoretical rich-ish guy is forking over 27.8.

(Corrections are welcomed, in the event that I've screwed up royally. And of course, we're talking taxable income here, after whatever deductions and exemptions and exclusions and such are subtracted.)