I think that Dick Cheney's wit is tragically underrated.
"It turns out John Kerry has voted in the Senate at least 350 times for higher taxes. That averages to one vote for higher taxes every three weeks, for almost two decades. At least the folks in Massachusetts knew he was on the job."
--Vice President Dick Cheney
This time of year seems as a good time as any to remind everyone who really foots the bill in the good ol' U.S. of A. In 2001, the top 10% of wage earners paid nearly 65% of federal income taxes. The top 50% paid over 96%. So the bottom 50% provides only $4 out of every $100 seized by the federal government. Dummocrats would have you believe that this is OK, that it is just and right because "the rich should pay more taxes, they have more money." Just who are are these "rich" people in the top 50%?
The top 50% were those individuals or couples filing jointly who earned $26,000 and up in 1999.
The numbers on the site linked above are a few years old, but a recent report from the Joint Economic Committee (pdf) indicates that the numbers haven't changed much. "The bottom 40% of earners pay a small percentage or no income taxes - or even receive money in the form of refundable tax credits - while higher earners pay a rapidly rising share of their income in taxes." (link via Professor Bainbridge).
Posted by jkhat at April 14, 2004 11:34 AM | TrackBackThe top 10% of wage earners do in fact pay 65% of federal income taxes, but they also earn 43% of the "adjusted gross income" in this country. This group is comprised by those making more than $93,000 per year.
It is also true that the top 50% of wage-earners pays 96% of taxes. They also make 86% of the income. The 50th percentile corresponds to those making more than $28,500 per year.
When you break down this upper half of wage-earners, you find that those in the 50%-75% range contribute less than their "share" (13% of taxes, 21% of income, 25% of population). The 15% of the population in the 75-90% range pay 18% of taxes, but earn 22% of the income. For the 5% in the 90-95 range, they pay 11.64% of taxes on 11.12% of income. Only the top 5%, those making over $127,900, pay significantly more than they would under a flat tax, paying 19.36% of taxes on 14.46% of income. (The top 1%, those earning more than $293, pay 33.9% of taxes, but earn 17.5% of the income).
The remaining bottom 50% of the population (those making under 28,500 per year), do only pay about 4% of the total tax, while they earn about 14% of the income in the country.
All of this is based on data released in the IRS in September 2003. It is based on tax data through 2001, and is available from the IRS at:
http://www.irs.ustreas.gov/pub/irs-soi/01in01ts.xls
This is the same study used in Rush Limbaugh's original article, "Only The Rich Pay Taxes." To read the response and analysis on which my comments are based, see http://home.att.net/~rdavis2/richpay.html
I'm not going to get into my opinion as to whether taxes are allocated appropriately in this country. I just wanted to make sure the rest of fact were included.
Posted by: Ethan at April 17, 2004 11:43 PM