Joe Biden Is Down to Tax the Richest of the Rich. Congress? Not So Much.

According to a story from the New York Times earlier this week, the Biden administration is pushing stats based on an “unconventional” methodology to show that American billionaires aren’t paying their fair share of taxes.

The income tax is generally progressive. Contrary to popular belief, most top 1 percent earners don’t pay lower income-tax rates than Warren Buffett’s proverbial secretary. Their rates tend to be much higher, though America’s top 400 earners have finagled a way to pay about the same average income tax rate as people in the 80th income percentile.

Under federal rules, meanwhile, a person...