Americans paid the lowest federal tax rate in three decades during President Obama’s first year in office, according to a new government report out this week.

The Congressional Budget Office found that the average tax rate in 2009 was 17.4 percent, the lowest since 1979, and down from 19.9 percent in 2007. Although figures are only available through 2009, the CBO expects to see the historic lows maintained through 2010 and 2011.

(The Washington Post points out the irony: 2009 was the same year anti-tax protesters began their full-throated criticism of White House tax policies.)

The only reasonable solution to this problem is a tax cut.