Believe it or not, I run into something similar to this with immunology data all the time. For example, we are seeing increases in radiation-induced inflammatory cytokines in the spleen. We’re also seeing increases in anti-inflammatory cytokines at the same time. And what it comes down to is a timing issue. Both are being produced, at differing degrees depending on where you are in the process, and they are “competing” with one another. If you ignored the pro-inflammatory data, you’d just say there was an increase in anti-inflammatory cytokines. And vice versa. But just looking at one isn’t really telling you the whole story.

My guess is you have a similar phenomenon with personal verses corporate taxes. Ditto with your environmental data.

Marginal rates today are much higher than most people actually pay, however – during the Bush years, effective tax rate (what the wealthy actually paid) was in the low 20s (percentage) due to much lower capital gains taxes than income taxes. I personally feel that effective tax rate is a better indicator, but I’m not an expert (even though I pretend to be one here at S&R from time to time).