Republicans Say the Poor Don't Pay Taxes. Facts Say They Pay More Than the Rich.

http://bigcorporationusa.blogspot.com/2011/06/republicans-say-poor-dont-pay-taxes.html

You are being lied to.

There has long been a argument and philosophy coming from the Republicans™ that the rich are the ones who carry us, with the middle-class helping. While the poor and lower classes sit around all day and collect money while paying no taxes.

And that it is the poor who are bankrupting this country through entitlements as the rich sit by helpless in their agenda to create jobs and prosperity in America.

This, of course, is not true in any way. This is called "Divide & Conquer", a tactic in which you defeat your opposition by turning them on each other to weaken their alliance, then conquer them when they are divided, split, and torn from within.

More at the link --

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36226444/ns/business-personal_finance/t/half-us-pays-no-federal-income-tax/



http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125997180

Because if we open it up to payroll taxes, withholding for Social Security and Medicare, sales taxes, property taxes, state income taxes and all the rest, then the picture assumes a more rightful posture. So let's be 100% absolutely sure that we talk about federal income tax and only federal income tax, so that we can all pity the beleaguered wealthy, who just can't seem to catch a break.

in the real world, the more you earn the more you pay in actual dollars. Rich people pay more in property taxes because they own more expensive property. By definition, a high wage earner will pay more Social Security and Medicare since they are a fixed percentage of earned income. State income tax is tied to Federal taxable income - it is very unusual to not pay federal taxes and still have to pay state taxes.

I don't pity the wealthy - I simply don't like misleading OP's that twist and omit facts to support an agenda.

can actually pay a smaller percentage of the income in SS taxes than the rest of us do.

Overall high earners pay a smaller percentage of their incomes in taxes than the rest of us and the percentage is what matters.

in the tax that generates the most revenue for the federal and state governments. That means they pay nothing for government services. What's the problem here?

It's pretty easy for me to do a little bit of math because two years or so ago I made about $5000 in the year.

About half of that money I turned directly into food, which (theoretically) is taxed at 2.5% here. So I paid $125 in food taxes.

I'm too poor to have a license or a car, so I ride a moped, sometimes 70 miles a day to get to work and back. Each trip I made cost me a gallon of gas, and I paid 17.5 cents in tax on each gallon. Let's say I made 50 of those round trips, which means I paid $8.75 in gas taxes.

Every single utility also carries with it taxes, which are also regressive. Even if the utilities are folded into my rent, the taxes are passed onto me by the landlord through the rent. As they range in the $1-$3 range each month, I'm guessing I paid around $75 in utility taxes.

Of course, there is also the undeniable fact that every tax that every retailer pays themselves is also passed on to me within the retail price of everything I buy at no discount because I'm not a preferred customer, for an indeterminate sum. Also, the grifter banks are targeting their poorest customers and whacking them with overdraft fees, which I routinely got hit with until I became too poor to have a bank account. But we can safely leave that out and simply notice that even though I paid almost no income taxes, I still got hit for at least $200 in taxes that year, which happens to be my food budget for a given month--if I'm having a good month.

That's nothing, right? Well, actually it is, because you see I'm the motherf---ing death zone, where every penny in taxes I pay is taken directly away from the minimal caloric intake a human requires to live. That one-month's worth of eating, converted into taxes, also happens to be right at the point where, if I try to work and don't eat for that long, I will die.

So when I pay my taxes, I'm literally putting my survival on the line so that rich people can ship a little more money to the Caymans and hire consultants to figure out how to reduce workforces and create more impoverished people like me.

See? A rich guy doesn't risk starving to death by paying a higher percentage of tax than me. And if my taxes are raised again through the ruse of "fairness," I will fairly expire and stop contributing to society altogether. Nobody can exploit my excellent work skills anymore. Nobody can profit by charging me daily for the basic things I need to survive. Somebody else even has to pay to dispose of my dead body.

So it's cheaper to keep me around, on the verge of death, than to actually let me die. That's what this income tax bullshit means to me.

At least according the NPR article you posted, 38% is the number when there are not large stimulus-related tax breaks:
It doesn't appear that there will be deficit busting stimulus legislation like this for a long time to come.

From your NPR article:

"In 2008, President Bush's stimulus payments sent $600 to individuals, $1,200 to couples, plus a little bit more if you had kids, and that all showed up as a tax reduction when you filed your income taxes.

This year we have the 2009 stimulus, which includes making work pay. Almost every American who works got benefit from that and a few other things that bring down tax bills."

As you quoted, it's mostly low income families. More detail is here:
http://www.factcheck.org/2008/11/americans-paying-no-taxes

And of the 38% that would be qualified to pay no taxes:
http://blogs.ajc.com/jay-bookman-blog/2009/02/24/the-50-percent-pay-no-tax-fraud-part-ii/

“Broadly speaking, the 44 million zero-tax filers are: low-income, young, female-headed households, part-time workers, and beneficiaries of the $1,000 per-child tax credit.

The 44 million zero-tax filers will be largely low-income. Indeed, 75 percent of will earn less than $20,000 per year and 97 percent will earn less than $40,000. Fewer than 1 percent will earn more than $75,000 per year – a group comprised largely of business owners whose tax liabilities will be erased due to business losses, carry-overs from prior year AMT payments, or foreign tax credits."

so 97% are low-income families that earn less than 40,000 (not 50,000). If they have no kids and are not disabled, they would pay at taxes on $40,000 no problem....


And who is responsible for them not paying taxes? The compassionate conservative himself GW Bush:

". First of all, as the Tax Foundation points out, the relatively large percentage of non-income-tax payers is a direct consequence of the Bush tax cuts that conservatives laud in other contexts. As the foundation pointed out in 2004, the number of zero-tax filers “was 29 million in 2000, and it will be 44 million in 2004, a 50 percent increase.” Again, it attributes that change to the Bush administration."

So the conservatives have created a situation where the poorest do not pay taxes, which they can then point out is not fair. Interesting isn't it?

So your entire argument is highly misleading, although technically you state the "facts."

is it because it doesn't support their agenda?

nor a combined feature. According to my stats from the IRS, those with income below $5,000 pay an average of 3.5% in Federal income taxes. Those making between $5,000 and $25,000 pay from 2.4 to 5.8%. Those making between $25,000 and $100,000 pay between 6.6% and 9.7% and those making between $500,000 and $1,000,000 pay 23.9% which is fairly constant for higher incomes, except those with incomes over $10,000,000 pay only 20.9%.

But if you add those four then, the rich probably pay a little more in terms of pecentages than the poor. And also, since 20% of $10,000 is a lot less than 20% of $100,000,000 the rich also pay a much larger percentage of the total.

May Gods forgive me.

get ready.

this is also boilerplate for the New Democrat Centrist Party,
along with the myth that the RICH people create jobs with their Tax Breaks.



"There are forces within the Democratic Party who want us to sound like kinder, gentler Republicans.
I want a party that will stand up for working Americans."
---Paul Wellstone


"By their WORKS you will know them."