You Pay Too Much Tax: A Budget Breakdown

All American Blogger ^ | 9/11/08 | Andrew Min

[andymin]

The national average income as of 2007 was, according to a census.gov PDF, $50,233 (see page 14). A dinkytown.net tool puts this at approximately $5762 in federal income tax for a single, male, head of the household. Note that this is just your income tax. No sales taxes or any other type of tax is included here. Additionally, this does not include state, county, or municipal tax, so you most likely pay much more (Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington state, and Wyoming are the only states that don’t have a state income tax, so chances are that you do pay something).

While we’re at it, let’s also talk about the “rich”. The highest tax bracket is for people who make $350,000 or more, so we’ll use $350,000 as our “rich” income. According to the dinkytown.net generator, that means the rich man pays $95,423 in tax. Again, this is minus sales taxes and any non-federal income tax for a single, male, head of the household.

Now, our tax goes to the president’s budget. Today, the budget is reckoned at about $3.1 trillion, which has a deficit of about $407 billion. I then went to the Wikipedia budget article and looked up the cost of each program. Then, I calculated what percentage each was of the federal budget. Then, I multiplied the decimal form of each percentage into the income (50233 and 350000) to get the resulting amounts of how much each cost. Since these are rounded estimates, the numbers don’t quite match up. They are rough numbers, not the exact numbers. I’m not good enough at Excel for that.

[RWB Patriot]

I’d love to show this to some of the people who actually believe the government taxes us for our own benefit. Too bad they’re too busy fighting the class war Big Brother encourages to see how much they’re being screwed.

[Bigun]

You Pay Too Much Tax

Of course you do and here's why!

Until we reverse the trends depicted our taxes will keep right on climbing!

[Harry Wurzbach]

Those with high incomes bear the load of the federal income tax burden. If you bother to listen to the left, you’d think the income tax was a regressive tax and the “rich” (really should be rephrased as “those with high incomes”) face low to non-existent rates.

The wealthy in this country have plenty of tax planning tools created by well-paid attorneys and other advisers at their disposal in order to mitigate their federal, state, and local tax burdens. It’s the average Joes and Josephines of the middle class who do not. Add to that payroll taxes to pay for Democrat created and adored entitlement programs and they are getting soaked.

It is quite amusing that those in the middle class still get suckered into believing that the GOP is screwing them in favor of the “rich” when they are really getting hammered by payroll taxes. When you consider that the true cost to an employee is not just the 7.5% or so that is taken out of your paycheck for FICA and Medicare, but rather that plus the employer’s “contribution” then you are looking at effectively a 15% tax on all workers. And that tax is regressive, as there are caps on the amount of income it applies to.

It’s amusing that so many get worked up, thanks to liberal politicians, about the allegedly “rich” not paying their fair share in income taxes (even though the top 50% of income earners pay 97% of federal income taxes and the tax code remains highly progressive when it comes to income), but at the same time bitterly cling to entitlement programs which are funded by highly regressive “contributions” and which ultimately do not offer an appealing return on those contributions.

Liberal demagougery on these issues is shameful. It takes advantage of the ignorance of the masses. It is about nothing more than emotion. But it’s reported as “economic policy” and somehow regarded as substantive.

Before I forget, I would have to observe that all of the young little socialists who are in college or have newly entered the workforce and think that liberal economic policies are swell and that Social Security and Medicare are no big deal are going to pay dearly later in life for their stupidity today.

And, at the end of the day, getting what you want sometimes is the best punishment.

[VaRepublican]

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