Posted on 04/28/2006 12:26:37 PM PDT by eleni121
The Bush tax cuts have been routinely assailed as multimillion dollar giveaways to the Rolls Royce owners of America at the expense of the middle class.
But new IRS statistics on the taxes Americans pay show that George Bush's tax policies actually soak the rich.
It turns out that the income tax burden has substantially shifted onto the wealthy. The percentage of federal income taxes paid by those who make more than $200,000 a year has actually risen from 41% to 47% in recent years.
In other words, the richest 3 out of 100 Americans are now paying close to the same amount in income taxes as the other 97% of workers combined.
It's also a common myth that the rich are hording all the wealth, while the middle class stays stuck in economic quicksand.
The IRS data show that the share of all income earned by the wealthiest 10% of Americans has actually fallen since 2001. The rich are earning less of the total income but paying more of the total taxes.
During this economic expansion, the middle class is growing and becoming more prosperous. About 4 out of 10 Americans now make more than $50,000 a year -- that's up from 3 out of 10 in 1990.
There's more good news. Tax revenues over the past two years are up more than half a trillion dollars — the largest two-year increase in tax collections in history.
Bush cut the capital gains and dividend taxes, but guess what? Now those tax receipts are through the roof in the last two years.
It's called the Laffer Curve: a lower tax rate has increased economic growth and investment and thus the government gets more tax revenues.
The Bush tax cuts have pumped steroids into the US economy and created 5 million new jobs, a surge in new business investment and record worker productivity.
Those are the reasons to make the tax cuts permanent. But for those who really want to sock it to the rich, the Bush tax cuts have done that too.
Steve Moore is a member of the editorial board at the Wall Street Journal.
Steve Moore actually spoke out for the President's tax cuts and probably infuriated the few thousand liberals who heard it. After all, they are used to listening to Robert Reichhhhh pontificate about the joys of redistribution of income through higher taxation and government mandate.
I knew about the Capital Gains tax being ahead of the Laffer Curve... I wonder what other taxes are as well?
While I agree with his premis, this stat is meaningless if it is not indexed for inflation...
yet the MSN is dead silent....
but they trumpted "tax cuts for the rich" without issue.
We all wish we were included with these who are paying more taxes.
mark
What percentage of their income goes towards paying various federal excise taxes, and how does that compare with other Americans?
According to BEA data, federal excise taxes and tariffs make up less than 5% of total revenue receipts.
According to CBO, the top quintile pays more than 33% of excises collected, the bottom quintile pays less than 12% of excises collected.
This is all meaningless if we're just going to SPEND ALL OF IT.
"While I agree with his premis, this stat is meaningless if it is not indexed for inflation..."
Step it up a notch dude, why not make 50K when 50K was real money like I did in the '80's. $50K is barely enough to get by on unless you owe less that $100K on your home.
Point: Indexed for inflation we are all lower middle class if combined income is sourced.
If anyone would like to be added to this ping list let me know.
John Linder in the House(HR25) & Saxby Chambliss Senate(S25) offer a comprehensive bill to kill all income and SS/Medicare payroll taxes outright and replace them with with a national retail sales tax administered by the states.
H.R.25,S.25
A bill to promote freedom, fairness, and economic opportunity by repealing the income tax and other taxes, abolishing the Internal Revenue Service, and enacting a national retail sales tax to be administered primarily by the States.Refer for additional information:
bump^
Here are a few:
1. FICA taxes a big chunk of their first $90K in wage income.
2. Property taxes hit them harder than lower income folks as these high income people tend to own larger and much higher-valued properties.
3. Sales taxes, while to some extent are regressive, also hit higher income people harder as they tend to spend a higher amount on taxable goods than those with lower income. (Besides consumption taxes are SUPPOSED to be a factor of consumption and not a factor of income or wealth.)
4. Higher income earners also tend to have more income from dividends and investments, which also means the soak-the-rich crowd also gets to enjoy the fact that they are double-taxed on these items.
Class envy is alive and well in this country. How long before the producers have had enough of carrying everyone else and they shrug?
Let's not forget the lovely AMT.
There are other ways - less well recognized, but just as effective in draining bux from you.
One is the hidden taxes that are embedded into the prices of everything that we buy. This in no way means payroll/withholding taxes but means the income taxes that businesses pay as well as compliance costs. These all must be paid for and that's done by increasing prices to take up the slack.
A second way to "tax" the unwary without them knowing it is actually managing of the money supply by the Federal Reserve so that it keeps inflation creeping upward just a bit each year for year after year. This inflation is merely another type of hidden tax and it is purposely done rather than being some force of nature.
Interesting. I remember hearing the democrats back in the 80s when I was a kid saying that poor people were paying all the taxes. My father would always laugh and say ,"How can the poor being paying all of the taxes, they don't have any money!". Nothing against poor people mind you, but definitly against the democrats.
Does anyone know where we can access these statistics on-line?
All I can say is more than 41% of all my income goes directly to income taxes. And then there's all the other taxes after that...
Try the IRS. That is where Steve got his data.
http://www.irs.gov/
then click tax stats.
When I get a chance I will try to get more specifics. If you find what you are looking for please share.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.