Kai Ryssdal

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We are not repeat not in a recession, adding the obligatory yet here.

But when a company that makes things like fridges and dishwashers tells you that sales of same were off nearly seven and a half percent last quarter amid soaring energy costs and falling consumer confidence, it does tend to concentrate the mind.

Daniel Ackerman takes it from there.

The last time we saw numbers down this much was back in the Great Financial Recession.

At that point, a lot of the competitors turned much more promotional in anticipating refunds.

The Tax Policy Center says the GOP's big tax and spending law from last year cut the tax liability of 85 percent of U.S.

households, disproportionately, yes, favoring higher income households.

At the same time, data from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy tells us 88 of the biggest companies paid no federal corporate income taxes in their most recent fiscal year.

So if most of us are paying less in taxes and a whole lot of big companies are paying nothing in income taxes, who is footing the national bill?

Annie Lowry is a staff writer at The Atlantic where she wrote about our tax challenges the other day.

Annie, welcome back to the program.

Good to have you on.

I'm going to steal a line from you early in this piece where you say basically it kind of looks like we're having a tax revolt now.

How did we get here?