America’s true tax rate
The U.S. already has flat taxes. But conservatives, like Pat Tiberi, are still clamoring for cuts for the rich
http://www.salon.com/2012/04/23/americas_true_tax_rate/
This table says it all:
Actually, a closer look at the table shows that our tax system is already _regressive_: the top 1% pays _less_ taxes as a percentage of their income as those in the next 39%.
The 1% earns 21% of income in the US and pays a smidgen more than 21% of the total taxes. Seems pretty damn flat to me already, but where it gets regressive is that, as a percentage of their income, the 1% pay at a rate of 29% while the next 19% pay an even _higher_ rate (up to 30.4%). This makes the tax _regressive_ again. If you look at the total income vs total taxes paid in the different groups, the top 39% pays more (as a percentage of the total income and total taxes) than the top 1% (as a percentage of their percentage).
Don’t believe the Great Lie of the GOP: the rich do NOT pay more in taxes. As a percentage of the income needed to meet the bare costs of existence, the rich pay an infinitesimal fraction of their income. I am quite certain that the people making $13K or less (and paying over 17% in taxes) are not getting a ‘free ride’ on society, if anything the 1% is getting that free ride by paying only 29% when they should be paying 35% federal AND state taxes according to our current tax code.
Societies cost money to operate and the rich disproportionally benefit from a society (without a society, their ‘richness’ is meaningless), so they should disproportionally pony up bucks to maintain it, not disproportionally less money!
Will making the rich pay more solve all our tax revenue problems? No, they simply don’t make enough money in aggregate. However, I can assure you that I would be a lot less upset about paying my fair share if Romney and company paid their fair share (which, to be fair, should be higher than my ‘fair’ share).
Of course, try to explain this to one of your conservative friends…
