Romney is one of myriad conservatives who believe that our country's poor are lazy -- and should be punished
It’s not just Mitt Romney. When anyone argues that the very rich should pay their fair share in taxes, conservatives frequently respond by shifting blame to the supposed 47 percent of Americans who don’t pay taxes. The message is simple: How come you liberals want to blame the wealthy but let poor people off the hook? And so, with apologies to Republicans who seem congenitally allergic to facts as of late, let’s look at who actually doesn’t pay taxes in America, and why, and what this means for our economy and the election.
It is true that roughly 47 percent of Americans pay no federal income tax. This is because they are too poor to fall within even the lowest tax bracket in America. However, more than half of these folks still pay other forms of taxes — including payroll taxes, not to mention the sales tax and gas tax and others to which all consumers are subject. And yes, many of these 47 percent do benefit from tax credits — because they are students or they are elderly or they are poor.
The actual percentage of Americans who have no federal tax liability and are not elderly? 6.9 percent. These Americans make less than $20,000 per year in wages. These are the working poor, who were always struggling to get by even in good times but are hit extra hard by high unemployment and the fact that, in the slow recovery, more and more solid middle class are being replaced by low-wage work. These, supposedly, are the very people Mitt Romney should be seeking to help with his candidacy — not attack.
Now, what’s interesting is that, while complaining that poor people don’t pay enough in taxes, conservatives also complain that the wealthy pay too much. They do this by focusing on the absolute dollar amount paid, as opposed to percentage. So, for instance, when Warren Buffett states that he pays lower taxes than his secretary, conservatives protest. Buffet pays far more in actual dollars, they argue.
Which is, of course, true — 1 percent of $1 billion is $10 million whereas 40 percent of $100,000 is only $40,000. In absolute dollars, sure, the billionaire is paying far, far more than the middle-class family, let alone a poor family. Yes, conservatives are right, the top 10 percent of Americans pay more than half of the nation’s total tax revenues — but that’s because the top 10 percent enjoy more than half of the nation’s income. And that gulf of inequality is only growing.
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