You don't have to take my word for it, but since the 39.6% bracket doesn't kick in until taxable income exceeds $413,201 (for singles) and $464,851 (for couples), which places one in the top 1% of earners, and since it only applies to taxable income earned above this level, it's safe to state that no one pays an effective tax rate of 39.6%.
Milton Friedman was a great economist, and far from a crackpot. Ted Cruz, on the other hand, is an attorney and, in my opinion, a political con artist, always eager to capitalize on any falsely drummed up controversy.
I understand that any tax rate that doesn’t kick in at $1 means the effective rate is never reached, but that goes with almost every tax except for a true flat tax without so much as a standard deduction. Those in the economic stratosphere or with one time windfalls certainly pay 39.6% on a sizable chunk of their income (unless they have offsetting deductions).
If Cruz were a con artist, he either would have kept the numbers fuzzier than he did, or he would have come up with numbers that couldn’t come close to paying the bills in the short term.
Although Cruz is a lawyer, I have no doubt he solicited the help of economists he trusted. Reagan was an economics major at Eureka, but he certainly enlisted Arthur Laffer and others to help out, and he built on the Kemp-Roth bill, authored by a couple of reps who focused on economics. In fact, according to the Washington Post, Laffer helped Cruz on his plan. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/10/28/ted-cruz-rolls-out-flat-tax-plan/).
You can dislike the Cruz plan, you can perhaps come out with a better one. I would not refer to it as a crackpot plan.
I have the converse problem with Trump. I am sure that Cruz has a coherent consistent moral code and political philosophy that helps him resolve matters. Trump is a bit more a la carte. As my issues of main concern are those odf a social conservative, Trump brushing off the marriage question as one that’s been decided by the courts and is now off the table vexes me.
I have tried very hard to give Trump his due. He has been saying a lot of good things, and is making the right friends and enemies as of late. I just do not trust him to be a full spectrum conservative that can create a structure that outlasts him like Cruz can. He may force a two party realignment, that may be a very good thing. If it turns out to be a bad thing, we may be toast anyway.