These Are The 47 Percent | TPMDC

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

The Republican lament of the moment is that some people don't pay enough (or any) taxes! Odd. I thought we were staggering under the tax burden! It turns out that the wrong people are paying taxes: those with money. Odder still. Of course everyone pays taxes - if they buy gas, have a state income tax, live on land subject to property tax, use a telephone, etc. But NOT everyone pays federal income taxes. Some have little or no income. Or they depend on Social Security disability or retirement benefits, etc. So the current Republican rallying cry is that the poor should pay more so that the affluent don't have to. - GWC

CHART OF THE DAY: These Are The 47 Percent | TPMDC: by Brian Beutler

"What's really going on here is that about 47 percent of households paid no federal income tax in 2009. Either they owed nothing, or they got as much back from the federal government as they paid -- or more.

This ignores payroll taxes, state and local taxes, gas taxes, excise taxes and much more. But to hear conservatives talk about it, you'd think these people's entire tax burden was $0.00. In April, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), citing similar data, claimed "According to the Joint Committee on Taxation, 49 percent of households are paying 100 percent of taxes coming in to the federal government." Notice the absence of the key qualifier, "income." And Grassley's far from alone.

As Benjy Sarlin explained at length the Republican answer to this problem, remarkably, is that Congress should raise these people's taxes."

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