Tea Parties are protesting the horrible overreach of big government and they are Tax Enough Already, right? An analysis by USA Today found that despite what the teabaggers say, taxes are at their lowest level since 1950.
Federal, state and local taxes — including income, property, sales and other taxes — consumed 9.2% of all personal income in 2009, the lowest rate since 1950, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reports. That rate is far below the historic average of 12% for the last half-century. The overall tax burden hit bottom in December at 8.8.% of income before rising slightly in the first three months of 2010.
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Individual tax rates vary widely based on how much a taxpayer earns, where the person lives and other factors. On average, though, the tax rate paid by all Americans — rich and poor, combined — has fallen 26% since the recession began in 2007. That means a $3,400 annual tax savings for a household paying the average national rate and earning the average national household income of $102,000.
So can we stop with the bogus argument that teabaggers are some kind of serious movement? The teabaggers say they are upset about the deficit but never noticed that Bush took a surplus and turned it into a deficit. They say they are upset about the bailouts and TARP, both are Bush programs. They claim to be upset about government overreach but haven’t said a word about the overreach of Arizona’s law requiring brown people to show papers to the authorities.
The Tea Parties have an incoherent ideology, which really seems to be organized around the concept “if Obama is for it I’m against it.” That doesn’t translate into a governing coalition and I certainly dread getting more Republicans like this into Congress. It’s time for the teababies to grow up, or get out of the way of people who are trying to solve the problems facing the country.