In their desperation to ensure that taxes are not raised on their corporate sponsors, Republicans have been successful in convincing their followers, as well as their poodles in the corporate media, that only the rich — not the poor and middle class — pay taxes.
That is not just a lie — it is a big lie. Via Andrew Sullivan:
Rick Warren tweeted earlier this week that “HALF of America pays NO taxes. ZERO. So they’re happy for tax rates to be raised on the other half that DOES.” Joan Walsh fisks him. Kevin Drum dug up this chart from a Tax Foundation report (pdf), which reveals the truth:
The blue bars don’t cherry pick just the federal income tax to make a dumb partisan talking point, they show how much each group actually pays in total taxes. Bottom line: Poor people pay less in taxes than rich people, as they should, but it’s very far from zero. The midpoint of that first quintile is about $11,000, and even a household earning that little pays about $1,400 in taxes. The household in the second quintile, earning a munificent $30,000 per year, pays $7,000 in taxes. I know we live in a post-fact environment, but those are the facts.
It is true that 46 percent of Americans pay no federal income taxes. People who zero out their federal taxes with personal exemptions or via the standard deduction account account for half of these non-payers. Another 22 percent are seniors who do not pay taxes on their Social Security income. Another 15 percent of non-payers take the earned income tax credit and similar benefits. Finally, about 10 percent of non-payers use other deductions and loopholes to zero out their tax liability.
Adam Caroll sums it up: “About 90% of people who don’t have to pay federal income tax don’t because they are poor, perhaps with children, or elderly and on fixed incomes. And, they still pay other taxes.”
My husband and I were amont the 46% who didn’t pay any federal income taxes last year, and I would love to have had to pay. Why? Because no matter how much we had to pay in taxes, we would still have ended up with more income than we had without having to pay taxes. So, bring it on–give us some good paying jobs and we’ll be delighted to pay our fair share of taxes. In fact, the more we pay, the better–every dollar paid in federal income taxes represents several dollars more in income. I get really, really tired of hearing the bellyaching of those people–like Rick Warren–who are fortunate enough to be making enough money that they have to pay a significant amount of income tax. Just think, if Rick would like to trade his income for mine, he, too, could be part of that “lucky ducky” group that pays no federal income taxes. Hey, Rick–you up for it?