Obama's Tax Plan Charade
Think about this for a minute. How is it possible for 95 percent of working Americans to receive an income tax CUT when only 67 percent of working Americans pay income taxes? The numbers just don't add up.
According to the National Tax Payers' Union, citing IRS statistics, 32.6 percent of Americans filing income tax returns do not pay any income taxes at all. So how do they get a tax cut? You can't cut from zero. It's impossible.
Here's a look at who pays income taxes. A review of data compiled by the National Tax Payers' Union (of course, you can go to the IRS web site and examine the tables for yourself if you wish) reveals the following:
Percentiles by AGI AGI Threshold Percent of Income Tax Paid
Top 1%
$388,806
39.89
Top 5%
$153,542
60.14
Top 10%
$108,904
70.79
Top 25%
$64,702
86.27
Top 50%
$31,987
97.01
Bottom 50%
2.99
So the question remains, how do you cut income taxes for those Americans who do not pay income taxes? You can't. But you can give them a rebate and call it tax relief, which is exactly what the Obama plan does. It's simple: you redistribute wealth. You take money earned by some American citizens and you give it to others who did not earn it.
According to a report by the non-partisan Tax Foundation, the 60 percent burden already being borne by the top 5 percent is going to get much heavier if the Obama tax plan is enacted. The Foundation says, "In short, the Obama plan would redistribute more than $131 billion per year from the top 1 percent of taxpayers to all other taxpayers. In 2009, for example, Tax Policy Center figures show that after the income-shifting in the Obama plan, the top 1 percent of taxpayers would pay a greater share of the total federal tax burden than the bottom 80 percent of Americans combines. In other words, 1.13 million Americans would pay more in all federal taxes than 128 million of their fellow citizens combined."
Another study by the Tax Foundation in 2004 found that "...the nation's tax and spending policies redistributed more than $1 trillion in income from the top 40 percent of American households to the bottom 60 percent of households."
That income redistribution is about to get even worse. With Obama pledging to give at least $500 to every single American worker making less than $250,000 per year and $1,000 to every couple making less than $250,000 per year, money will be taken from some tax payers and given to others.
That is the redistribution of wealth and it is one more step on the road to socialism in this country.
Published by AC Writer
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7 Comments
Post a CommentBy current tax breaks, I'm assuming you're referring to the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003? Those tax cuts reduced marginal tax rates in ALL brackets, created a new low 10% bracket, and knocked millions off the tax rolls. Current tax breaks do not just apply to those making over $250,000.
And while the percentage of filers may be 95%-98%, the percentage of those filers who actually end up paying income tax is 67%. So in order to give 95% of working Americans tax relief, you would have to redistribute wealth (which isn't even tax relief, it's a rebate--you can't get relief from paying zero) for the 28% above the 67% threshold.
And you can't just compare incomes. The guy who makes $500,000 a year probably has a different skill set than the guy who makes $50,000. And what they contribute to society, and therefore their value from year to year, is determined by society itself. Bill Gates became very rich because society had a demand for what he created. Should he be penalized for t
Ypu're mixing two statistics - the current tax break, which applies to people earning $250k or more, and the percentage of filers whose gross income is below $250k. The latter is measured between 95-98% depending on whether you use constant dollars and whether you average 2005-2007 returns or break them down year by year. Incomes vary year over year. At any rate - the figure is nowhere near 67%. Perhaps the more telling statistic is how little the collective incomes of ALL wage earners under $200k annually is compared to the collective incomes of the 2-5% of the population who earn above that level. The concentration of wealth stratifies more each year and the 2007 year end gross DOLLARS at the top rank versus DOLLARS below that for the 95-98% of households showed significant wealth growth at the top vs. 1999 and significant wealth LOSS vs. 1999 below the $200k mark.
But 95% of taxpayers don't make below $250,000. The income threshold listed by the IRS for the top 5% is $153,542, not $250,000.
I'm not misleading on anything. Obama's numbers don't add up, no matter how you slice it.
What he said during the debate was the 95% of taxpayers who earn below $250k will get a tax break - it is also on the Obama-Biden website . You can't give tax breaks to non-taxpayers - and non-taxpayers don't expect tax breaks. When John McCain refers to tax breaks he is also only referring to tax breaks for those who currently pay taxes and just because he doesn't always explicitly refer to those who 'earn less than $45,000 a year - as 'those taxpayers who earn' doesn't mean he's talking about non-taxpayers. We know what they're talking about and we shouldn't mislead about it.
Actually, Kelly, Obama has repeatedly said 95% of those earning a paycheck will get a tax cut. That is impossible because only 67% of those earning a paycheck end up paying taxes on those earnings. No misrepresentation, except by Obama.
Who cares about that kind of stuff. He's so cute to look at and he'd be the first African American, excuse me African Caucasian. Isn't that enough? Do we have to bring up silly stuff like how crazy his proposals are?
Obviously, the plan applies to those who pay income taxes - 95% of taxpayers, not of citizens, will receive tax cuts. That is, in part, because the tax incentive available to those of us who earn over $250k a year will be eliminated. You don't have to agree with Obama's plan - but you shoudln't misrepresent it. To reduce a clearly stated premise to a ridiculous level is not a sounds basis for an argument.