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CBO: By the way, the rich already pay more than a fair share in taxes
Hotair ^ | 07/11/2012 | ERIKA JOHNSEN

Posted on 07/11/2012 7:20:20 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

"There's nothing wrong with asking the wealthy to pay a little more in taxes." -Barack Hussein Obama

I feel like I'm constantly beating readers over the head with the simple logic that, due to America's national percentage-based and graduated income tax, the country's wealthy already pay "a little more" than most people do in taxes --- why must President Obama insist on making me do that to you? It really would be much more productive if the President would just come out and say, why yes, I would like to take an even larger chunk out of the wealthy's success in order to expand entitlement spending and effectively redistribute wealth. Instead, he's constantly implying that the wealthy somehow don't provide for the lion's share of taxes, which we all know is patently and painfully false ... but here are just the latest set of numbers corroborating the fact.

According to the CBO's latest analysis released Tuesday, wealthy Americans earn approximately 50 percent of all income, but pay around 70 percent of the federal tax burden.

CBO looked at 2007 through 2009 — the latest years data are available, but enough to include the early effects of the last recession — and found the bottom 20 percent of American earners paid just three-tenths of a percent of the total federal tax burden, while the richest 20 percent paid 67.9 percent of taxes. …

The big losers over the past few years were the rest of the well-off — those in the 60th percent to 99th percent of earnings — who saw their tax burdens go up.

“Specifically, between 2007 and 2009, the share of taxes paid fell for the bottom three income quintiles, was close to flat for the fourth quintile, but rose for the highest quintile,” CBO said. “Within the top quintile, however, the shift was uneven; the share paid by the top percentile fell, and the share paid by the rest of the top quintile rose.”

In terms of actual earnings, the top 1 percent suffered the most in the recession, with their average earnings dropping from $1.9 million to $1.2 million. The lowest 20 percent saw their incomes drop from $23,900 to $23,500 during that time. …

… On average, the lowest 40 percent of earners actually get money back through the income tax code because of refundable tax credits.

Again, if President Obama would simply come clean with his true political motives rather than trying to spin the situation as if the tax code is somehow unfairly geared toward taking advantage of the middle class and letting the wealthy off scot-free, we could all be spared a great deal of soul-grating aggravation.

Take us out, WSJ:

So the 2013 tax cliff is a big enough economic problem that President Obama now wants to postpone it for some taxpayers. But it isn’t so big that he’s willing to curb his desire to raise taxes on tens of thousands of job-creating businesses. …

By Mr. Obama’s economic logic, tax increases matter on middle-income earners but are irrelevant to everyone else. “By the way, these tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans are also the tax cuts that are least likely to promote growth,” as he put it Monday.

But Mr. Obama is demanding tax increases, not tax cuts, and large increases at that. If the Bush tax rates expire as scheduled on December 31, rates on the top two income brackets will jump to 39.6% from 35%, and 36% from 33%. …

The President dismissed all of this as merely affecting 3% of small business owners. But that includes tens of thousands of the most productive, fastest-growing small businesses—those most likely to hire workers amid a national jobless rate of 8.2%.



TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: fairness; rich; taxes

1 posted on 07/11/2012 7:20:34 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

The rich are the first the socialist party goes after,then the middle class like Obama’s doing now.
He lives by lies.


2 posted on 07/11/2012 7:25:47 AM PDT by Vaduz
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To: SeekAndFind

I think the rich should pay 100% tax on any income that is not put back into the economy through investment, or buying of goods and services. I’m sick of those rich bastards putting all that money under their mattresses, and burning it for entertainment.


3 posted on 07/11/2012 7:29:04 AM PDT by Born to Conserve
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To: SeekAndFind

4 posted on 07/11/2012 7:32:03 AM PDT by Hotlanta Mike (Resurrect the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC)...before there is no America!)
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To: Born to Conserve

...and lighting cigars!!!


5 posted on 07/11/2012 7:32:58 AM PDT by jrestrepo (See you all in Galt's gulch)
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To: SeekAndFind; Vaduz; Born to Conserve; Hotlanta Mike; jrestrepo
Bwaha! Hotlanta Mike....I was searching for that cartoon ("http://www.creators.com/editorial_cartoons/2/19315_image.gif") to post while you were posting it. Great minds.

OK, so here's all I have instead:

"Dr. Zhivago!!! Housing Reallocation Committee on line 2!"

6 posted on 07/11/2012 7:35:55 AM PDT by sam_paine (X .................................)
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To: Born to Conserve

yes, just look at how little investment is being made into our economy-

http://www.minyanville.com/trading-and-investing/fixed-income/articles/recession-depression-federal-reserve-fed-unemployment/7/11/2012/id/42324?camp=syndication&medium=portals&from=yahoo

those selfish rich SOB’s went under the rocks with their money bags when obama was selected- maybe they rasist

obama ought to just seize their assets and invest them himself, by executive order-

the all-wise obama and hiz economic teams have shown they are all-wise at picking wealth-creating winners, just look at the jobs

like GM chevy volts, and solyndra

Trickle-up poverty for all
It’s only fair


7 posted on 07/11/2012 8:04:10 AM PDT by silverleaf (Every human spent about half an hour as a single cell)
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To: SeekAndFind

“There’s nothing wrong with asking the wealthy to pay a little more in taxes.” -Barack Hussein Obama

Sounds like discrimination to me.


8 posted on 07/11/2012 8:10:04 AM PDT by Arm_Bears (Journalists first; then lawyers.)
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To: Arm_Bears

They can’t possibly be paying their fair share. Uncle obie our half-rican American POTUS said so. By the way, whatever happened to his dad frank marshall davis? Ooooppppssss! That wasn’t his dad. Just his mentor that gramps handed him off to. Must be “equal under what I deem equal” clause huh?

Helping keep mankind warm for 65 years.


9 posted on 07/11/2012 8:19:55 AM PDT by rktman
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To: SeekAndFind
"There's nothing wrong with asking the wealthy to pay a little more in taxes." -Barack Hussein Obama

When the taxpayers ask, how much they should give, Oh! Obama only answers "More, More, More, More!" It ain't me, it ain't me . . . .

10 posted on 07/11/2012 9:08:32 AM PDT by Opinionated Blowhard ("When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.")
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To: SeekAndFind
The rich paying their fair share is an interesting moral question. From a Christian perspective, only the person paying the tax can assess whether or not they are paying a fair share. For someone else to make that assessment, especially of lower means, is nothing short of coveting his neighbors possession. If someone of lower means thinks that a rich person has too much wealth, thus can afford to pay more tax, they are demonstrating envy which is at the core of the 10th commandment.
11 posted on 07/11/2012 9:58:39 AM PDT by 11th Commandment (http://www.thirty-thousand.org/)
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To: SeekAndFind

This is a bogus argument to get into since “fairness” is not defined and terrible terms on which to hold a debate.


12 posted on 07/11/2012 5:24:40 PM PDT by newzjunkey
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