GOP’s relentless war on the poor and middle class continues to impress
How many times have you heard some broke-ass teabagger quote this gem from memory?… “Almost 70 percent of the federal revenue is provided by the top 10 percent of taxpayers now. Between 45 percent and 50 percent of Americans pay no income tax at all.”
While we all know the trick, and we clearly see the clumsy slight of hand switcharoo mid-statement from “federal revenue” to “no income tax”, this zombie economic lie goes on and on.
How often have you heard the GOP leadership take the high ground when it comes to protecting America’s wealthy from the rapacious greed of the nation’s poor? Here is Mitch McConnell on the topic:
(CBS News) The United States tax code favors lower income Americans too much already and should be restructured to make it fairer to upper income earners, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said.
In an interview that aired on “CBS This Morning” Tuesday, the Kentucky Republican said he is ready to sit down with “this president or the next president” and have an animated discussion about the tax code to “reach a conclusion” that would bring down the ballooning U.S. deficit.
“Almost 70 percent of the federal revenue is provided by the top 10 percent of taxpayers now. Between 45 percent and 50 percent of Americans pay no income tax at all. We have an extraordinarily progressive tax code already. It is a mess and needs to be revisited again,” McConnell said in the interview, taped Monday.
It is astonishing isn’t it? With so many poor and middle class people in this country relative to the wealthy who benefit from Bush style GOP economics, you have to wonder what is going on.
The GOP has apparently won over enough middle class dunderheads who think of themselves as wealthy, and concluded that the poor will never, ever, ever, ever, push back on even the most egregiously abusive measures – that they effectively represent a majority. There is just no other explanation for the continuing to pursue the utter and complete failure known as trickle down economics.
That statistic never gets the critical thinking it deserves. It relies on innumeracy, which unfortunately is a good bet.
Progressive taxation is determined by tax rate, not by total revenue. Warren Buffet pays far more tax than his secretary, but at regressive rates. Mitt Romney paid what – 13%?
So totting up total tax paid by income bracket is simply a way to trick dummies into seeing progressivism where there is none. All it does is show how much richer the upper brackets have become, and highlights just how much money has been stripped from the middle class and pumped into the pockets of the wealthy under the Bush tax rules.
Republicans think poor people have too much money and rich people don’t have enough.
We’ll never get Republicans to give up trickle-down. But you’d think we could at least punish Democrats who try to sell us trickle-down.
If Occupy has any thought of coming back, the time would be next November when Obama is laying out a Decenber surprise that would extend the trickle-down tax cuts, and Carper/Coons/Carney are lining up behind him.
When Republicans say “70 percent of the federal revenue is provided by the top 10 percent of taxpayers now” they neglect to add that corporations now provided less than 9% when they used to supply over 20%.
I’m at the point of supporting a flat tax for all C-corps. No deductions. Just a straight patriotic 5% off the top line for the privilege of doing business in America.
“I’m at the point of supporting a flat tax for all C-corps. No deductions. Just a straight patriotic 5% off the top line”
That’s the Delaware Gross Receipts Tax, not? Although the GRT rate is much lower.
I’ve already posted my proposal to repeal Federal corporate tax and replace it with a revenue-neutral increase in the top bracket of personal tax. That’ll give those thieving C*Os something to think about before they loot and abandon their next company.
The fact Republican leaders can openly advocate raising taxes on the poor and middle-class shows how well their spin operation is. When is the Democratic Party going to wake up?
Everything Obama says is the exact opposite of the truth.
Everything.
It’s the communist way.
Care to share some examples? I never got your response to “libs” like George Washington and John Adams favoring an individual mandate!
A flat tax of 20% on everyone would be fair, yes? Include all corporations and remove tax shelters and loophole gimmicks.
This simple action is opposed by many as it then requires those citizens paying nothing to pay something. This simple action is opposed by many as it hits the pocketbooks of those big corps that sponsor elections.
Nasty cycle – but the point here is that no one is clean in this debate.
From Seattle
A flat tax on what? Income? Wealth? Consumption?
“This simple action is opposed by many as it then requires those citizens paying nothing to pay something. This simple action is opposed by many as it hits the pocketbooks of those big corps that sponsor elections.”
This simple action is opposed by the intelligent because it shifts the tax burden down, not up. Most high earners and corporations DO pay taxes; the idea that lots of them pay nothing is a dangerous myth. The math is simple: If the rich pay less, and they would at 20% (it would require a 30% rate to be revenue-neutral), then the middle class must pay more.
The flat tax or its variants would hurt, not help, the middle and lower classes.
those who pay nothing….. the classic argument from people who forget… or have never been taught…. how the tax system works.
Just because you dont cut a check to the IRS in April doesnt mean you dont pay taxes. If someone has makes 24000 a year AFTER THE TAXES THEY HAVE BEEN PAYING ALL YEAR… another 4,800 is A LOT more to them than an extra 20,000 is to someone wealthy.
I haven’t done the math but what if you redefine income as the earning of a dollar regardless of how it is earned? I don’t care whether it is from investments or corporate takeovers or hedge fund bonuses or salary and wages. A dollar earned is a dollar earned. A flat tax may be a good solution IF AND ONLY IF you change the definition of income.
Low income earners presumably have no investments, but those (like Romney) who earns no wages because he has no job would be taxed at the same rate as the low income earners except that he would be taxed on all earnings period. While taxing capital gains at a lower rate is thought to spur investment, I believe that investment will occur regardless because a dollar sitting idle earns nothing so noone is just going to sit on their wealth, they will look for growth potential. The income tax is regressive because it only considers wages and the lower income levels are the folks who are more apt to have only wages.
@Rockland: I would be fascinated to know what you think communism is, if you think Obama is a communist, but of course, you are just trying to stir people up.
So…a flat tax is unfair because it would “hurt, not help the middle and lower classes”. How true, paying something is not better than paying nothing. Laughable little libs.
Tax paid on gas, medicare, a loaf of bread, SS is not the same as being even or ahead on federal income tax at the end of the year. This weak argument is the crutch of the lazy.
From Seattle
@S “Tax paid on gas, medicare, a loaf of bread, SS is not the same as being even or ahead on federal income tax at the end of the year.”
A tax is a tax. Dollars are fungible. Any attempt to single out a specific tax without looking at the whole picture is utterly dishonest. Oh… And that means you.
Don’t forget that the SS tax is mainly paid by the working classes. Most pay that all year long, but some of us are off the hook before winter is over and hardly notice its effects.
And if you want to advocate a total tax of 20% for ALL taxes, then that would be more fair, but well below what’s needed to balance the budget without major cuts.
It’s not a weak argument, it’s the only salient argument. Only conservatives would be stupid enough to increase taxes on themselves while cutting them on the rich.