Marco Rubio’s tax plan is doing the rounds. Here’s a brief summary from the Washington Post:

Under the Lee-Rubio plan, the seven current tax brackets would be condensed to just two — 15 percent for people earning up to $75,000 or married couples earning up to $150,000, and 35 percent for higher-income earners. Corporations would pay a top tax rate of 25 percent, a drop from 35 percent. The plan also would eliminate taxes on capital gains and dividends, create a new $2,500 child tax credit, and eliminate most deductions, except for mortgage interest and charitable giving.

A quick anecdotal point: Rubio and Lee need to be careful when explaining this to the public, because most people don’t really understand how progressive income taxes work. I have a number of friends who vaguely keep up on politics, and their first reaction has been that this would represent a massive tax increase. Why? Well, because they know how much they earn, they read that Rubio’s plan would tax them 35 percent at a much lower threshold, and they presume therefore that all of their income will be taxed at that rate. They don’t see the loss of the other brackets. They don’t see the other changes to the manner in which income is taxed. They see the raw numbers, and they apply their income to the biggest number. And that doesn’t look good.

This, it seems, is a pretty common mistake. When selling his idea during the primaries, Rubio will need to ensure that his audience understands what he’s talking about.