Ron DeSantis described a single-rate income tax system where high-income households would pay the same marginal tax rate as middle-income families. Pressed on the fairness of that approach, he said he would make sure people are better off under his tax plan than they are now.

That could be an enormous tax cut, given that tens of millions of low-income and middle-income Americans already pay very little in income taxes. DeSantis was correct when he said that federal government revenue soared in recent years. That wasn’t because Congress raised taxes but largely because people sold stocks during the economic recovery as the country came out of the pandemic.