Relying on "The Rich"
The next time one of your Democratic friends tries to insist that "the rich" are exploiting the rest of American society, refer them to these figures.
Learn it, love it, live it:
According to the Department of the Treasury, the top 1% pays 32.4% of the total tax burden. The top 2-5% pays 20.9%. That means that the top 5% pays 53.5 percent of the total tax burden.
As for the bottom 50%? Their share of the total tax burden: 3.4%.
So much for the myth of "the rich" not paying "their fair share."
Learn it, love it, live it:
According to the Department of the Treasury, the top 1% pays 32.4% of the total tax burden. The top 2-5% pays 20.9%. That means that the top 5% pays 53.5 percent of the total tax burden.
As for the bottom 50%? Their share of the total tax burden: 3.4%.
So much for the myth of "the rich" not paying "their fair share."
posted by LadybugUSA at 6:00 AM
12 Comments:
It's troubling to see Republicans seeking fewer benefits for those who have always paid for the benefits, just because they are successful. It's really the same attitude as the Dems wanting to raise taxes on them. Perhaps if the feds weren't spending so much money on crap, there'd be more to meet it's obligations elsewhere. So the real problem is spending and how and where it's done, not that revenues are insufficient.
Yes, Marshall I agree that the government spending money on crap is a waste of tax dollars. That 300 plus billion dollars Bush has wasted in iraq could have gone to legitimate Homeland Security measures. The fiscally wealthy get around most taxes anyway and only a 17.5% flat tax with no decductions will ever cure that problem. No one rich or poor WANTS to pay their "fair share" and as we know statistics can be spun just like talking points to say what you want them to say.
D.T.
Carol, a more basic point - why in tarnation (rabbit!) are taxes being cut at all?
The president constantly reminds us we're at war. But we are getting taxes cut as if we're at peace. So - are we at war or not?
Or are we at war only when it suits some, but not when it doesn't suit?
I'm a lot less lathered about who gets taxes cut than I am the matter of, why are they being cut.
why in tarnation (rabbit!) are taxes being cut at all?
Because when tax rates are cut, receipts to the Federal treasury go UP not down.
Of course if you feel bad not paying more, by all means leave the IRS a tip.
Why the hell should rich people have to be made to feel guilty about being rich. They have positioned themselves in the path of success.
www.snowboarding-wares.are.us
After the "eye of the needle" parable, His disciples asked Jesus, "Who then can be saved?", and Jesus also said, ""With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." (Matthew 19:16-26, RSV) Therefore, the wealthy can, indeed, enter the kingdom of God. Many leftists, though, equate being wealthy with being evil. Except, of course, when the wealthy are leftists, even though they use the same tax laws as the conservative wealthy to preserve their riches.
So, is Sen. Kerry going to hell, too, because according to his and Ms. Heinz-Kerry's (they have a $700 million net worth) tax returns, they were in the 15% tax bracket, when the average American making $200,000 a year paid 25% in taxes?
Or how about billionaire George Soros, who told a 60 Minutes interviewer, "I am basically [in business] to make money. I cannot and do not look at the social consequences of what I do." I don't see leftists criticize Soros as making the "poor bleed and die protecting [his] business interests." (To be fair, I suppose he would be blasted as soon as he quit funding Moveon.org and other leftist causes.)
The wealthy don't "get around" taxes, but pay according to IRS rules, which are set up to promote the type of activity that results in people getting wealthy. And thought I'd much rather spend money on things other than war, I don't see the current mission to be crap on which we're wasting money. Frankly, I could easily go for a flat tax or a national consumption tax, though I fear politicians would raise those as well for the same reasons of overspending. But "fair share" as it is known today is very subjective, and when one considers all that benefits society by the wealth creation of business builders, they've more than paid their fair share through taxes on purchases, job creation and the like. As to how much the wealthy own, well, they freakin' paid for it, didn't they?
Of course, Wile E Coyote as a journalist I come with aglaring example of a tax loophole that as you say is legal but I find offensive. This ability to deduct your entire gross income and then reinvest the money yourself while legal is not something a middle class American can participate in. I still don't see what the 17.5% flat tax for everyone does to degrade capitalism in America. Such a tax would eliminate the need for a filing system and put the burden of tax payments on employers where it belongs and not unconstitutionally on citizens.
Even President Bush realizes that the rich do not pay their taxes as they should as is pointed out by his quote during the 2004 campaign during a stop in Annandale, VA from the Associated Press, 9 August 2006:
The president held a town hall-style forum with about 600 supporters at Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale.
He criticized Democrat John Kerry's proposal to eliminate tax cuts for the wealthy, saying that "the rich in America happen to be small business owners" who put people to work. Bush added that "the really rich people figure out how to dodge taxes anyway."
If your president is not a good enough source of facts then I will provide more upon your request.
D.T.
That quote date should have been 9 August 2004 not 2006.
D.T.
I work everyday and very hard for my silver coins I might add trying to bring a little truth and light to a debate that has lost its civility. I'm truly sorry Cliff that your party, the GOP, has bungled the foreign policy free ride of the century post September 11, 2001, by following the likes of Laurie Mylroie and William Kristol down the rabbit hole of Iraq.
I work for a state run news organization that has likely more freedom of the press than corporate owned papers in America. You see Cliff Americans believe what they WANT to believe. That applies to taxes, wars, terrorism, lifestyles, religion and anything else they can be wrong about.
The proof of this is when you say, "I'll be so glad when you people are out of power!" Well the last time I read CQ the GOP had both the executive and legislative branches and had appointed two justices to the SCOTUS. Democrats cannot even schedule a hearing in Congress. What else do your people need other than another 20 years to bring the rest of the sky down on America?
And as far as geting ahead in life, been there done that and I still am. But no matter what happens in November I hope the truth is served even more so than my own personal lust to see the advocates of bad government turned out.
Oh and on the record receipts in taxes thing record profits for corporations tend to do that for the Taxman!
I do so enjoy these little debates!
Hey, since this is a capitalist democracy why not invoke the 1st Amendment and read my dispatches at www.the disbrimstone-dailypitchfork.blogspot.com and see what far left liberals are really thinking!
D.T.
Diane,
It's a lovely circle: lower taxes, more profits from which taxes come, more taxes paid. Those corporate profits that many lefties feel are indicative of greed and treachery, are enhanced by low taxes, and that's why tax receipts are up. They go hand in hand. Raise taxes, you choke profits and then the productivity that the profits allow for, and then tax receipts plummet. Also, the wealthy put their money where they are less likely to be taxed like hell. The only way to raise revenues to the gov is to lower tax rates. It's been shown to be true for three different presidential admins and as I recall, Cuomo got a boost for New York for doing the same thing.
A basic truth. Rich People do not need to pay taxes. Rich people generate wealth!
Unless they havea money vault like ol'e Scrooge McDuck, they pump this money back into the economy. Thisa in turn creates jobs and government revenue.
There is a magnificant term that describes all this -- Incentive
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