Atrios and his readers are discussing the question of dividends, based on this CNN.com article and one of its sidebars ("Dividend Tax Cut: Who Will It Help"?).

Anyone who wants to dig a bit deeper can see a fuller set of numbers in Table 1 of this PDF file from IRS.gov (scroll down to page 8 of 11). The PDF provides information on individual income tax returns for 2000; CNN's numbers apparently come from this data set.

Now, I'm not the most nimble calculator jockey, but here's what I get from Table 1:

* Only 14.3% of taxpayers with incomes under $15,000 reported any dividend income whatsoever in 2000.

(It may seem odd that anyone at that income level collects dividends, but as one of Atrios's readers points out, "$25k/year including 1700 in dividend would not be unusual for, say, a 70 year old widow with a modest pension and small nest egg of highly appreciated stock.")

* Only 14.5% of taxpayers with incomes between $15,000 and $30,000 reported dividend income in 2000.

* Only 23.5% of taxpayers with incomes between $30,000 and $50,000 reported dividend income in 2000.

Combine the brackets and only 16.8% of filers with incomes of $50K or less had dividend income -- 83.2% didn't.

And $50K-and-under filers constitute 71.7% of all filers.

Not even a majority of filers in the $50,000 - $100,000 bracket reported dividend income -- only 41.5% of people at this income level had dividends. But dividends were reported by 88.2% of filers with incomes $200,000 and higher.

This is the Bushies' idea of an "across-the-board" tax cut.