If top 5% paid 40% of taxes, what is their 'fair' share?

[Valin]

Washington Examiner:

11/20/12

 

 

Riding a wave of confidence after his re-election victory, President Obama is eager to collect scalps from the class war he appears to have won. Americans, Obama said in his postelection news conference earlier this month, "want to make sure that middle-class folks aren't bearing the entire burden and sacrifice when it comes to some of these big challenges. They expect that folks at the top are doing their fair share as well." House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., echoed this point in a fundraising pitch sent out on Monday: "Voters sent a clear message to Republicans in the election: we must stand up for the middle class and ensure the wealthy pay their fair share."

 

Although Obama and his fellow Democrats repeatedly call on wealthier Americans to pay their "fair share," they never specify what percentage of the nation's tax burden the wealthy would have to bear. As matters stand, the top 1 percent of American households paid 39 percent of income taxes in 2009, according to the most recent data compiled by the Congressional Budget Office, and the top 5 percent of taxpayers paid 64 percent.

 

But income taxes, taken in isolation, do not tell the whole story, because lower-income Americans do pay payroll taxes. But even taking into account all forms of taxation, the top 1 percent still paid 22 percent of federal taxes while earning just 13.4 percent of household income. The top 5 percent paid 40 percent of all federal taxes, despite earning only 26 percent of all income. No matter how you slice the numbers, it's hard to understand why anyone would think the wealthy aren't already shouldering a burden commensurate with their blessings.

[Pepper]

If top 5% paid 40% of taxes, what is their 'fair' share?

 

 

 

"They've been ripping us off for years so, about 100%, that seems fair to me" -- Obamaphone Parasite

[nickydog]

This country is so divided and people are so angry and resentful it just makes me sick. Has it always been this way and I just didn't see it? Certainly our president has been successful in bringing it all to the surface.

[Valin]

This country is so divided and people are so angry and resentful it just makes me sick. Has it always been this way and I just didn't see it? Certainly our president has been successful in bringing it all to the surface.

 

I'd put the start of this back in the late 60's SDS, Weather Underground, The Silent Majority...etc.. the divide really took off with the election of Ronald Reagan, increased with Bush v Gore, Iraq, and here we are today. What in our youth were considered extreme are today mainstream. What would Joe Six pack from 1962 think about life today? What do you mean, no smoking in bars? the government telling me what kind of toilet I can buy? Having a child out of wedlock is no big deal? I have to remove my shoes before getting on a plane? The government ordering me to buy health insurance? Mandatory car seats for children, and seat beats for adults? Cities going bankrupt? That is just crazy! Yet here we are.

 

The good news(?) is Trends that cannot continue...won't.