Fleeced: The upper 1% earned 19.6% of total income before tax, and paid 41% of the individual federal income tax. "No other major country is so dependent on so few taxpayers"
and
Top Ten Charts of 2010
Update: How much per-person debt did this Congress add?
Quit it, Darren. While this fact is true, it also belies the fact that the percentages change dramatically when you combine all federal spending, including social security, medicare, and medicaid, paid for by the regressive fica tax. This is one of the most disingenuous stats propagated by the right, and I'll call it every time I see it.
ReplyDeleteCome on Darren...according to Andria Mitchell, NBC News, Washington, Pelosi has accomplished so much in four years, getting so much passed, she is a great speaker, to be mentioned in the likes of Sam Rayburn or Tip O'Neil...we should be happy and proud of the statemen (err statespersons I guess) in this Congress.
ReplyDeleteRather than getting into a snit, max, present what you think is a fact.
ReplyDeleteThis site might make maxutils happier:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.allegromedia.com/sugi/taxes/
The claims (which I find plausible) include that the top 1% of earners pay 29% of all (federal) taxes. This includes FICA. The top 5% of earners pay 50% of all (federal) taxes.
So, 29% of all federal taxes instead of 41% of federal *income* taxes.
Even if one believes that this is fair/just (or, perhaps, that the rates are too low to be considered fair/just), this is *FRAGILE*. A bad year or five for a small percentage of the tax-paying population will have a huge effect on the federal tax collection.
We have seen this already in California. The taxes paid at the state level are similarly skewed. After the 2001 dot-com implosion, California income taxes collected collapsed because the top few percent were no longer cashing in stock options (and no longer paying taxes on those stock options).
Again, one doesn't have to believe that this is fair to believe that this is fragile.
-Mark Roulo
Only one little issue: "Capital Gains" are not treated as income and the rate is capped at 15%. That means that Warren Buffet and Teresa Heinz Kerry pay a lower tax rate than you or I do.
ReplyDelete