Tax Cuts for the Rich (was: JFKerry teaches me wrong from right...)

Frustrated, failed ex-Presidential candidate John F. Kerry is speaking out again.

We're talking about values? You show me where in the New Testament Jesus ever talked about the value of having taxes and taking money from poor people to give to the rich people in this country.

Whuh?!? Not to confuse our old French buddy with facts, but stats from the CBO show that the top 20% of taxpayers pay 78% of the federal income tax. Rush Limbaugh has an article pinned on his home page summing up the findings rather nicely.

The overwhelming majority of federal income taxes are paid by the very highest income earners. The top 1% of income earners pay about 32% of all income taxes. The top 5% pays 51.4%. The top 10% of high income earners, pay 63.5%. The top 20% of income earners pays 78% of all federal income taxes.

What I want to know is... how does this fact equate to taking money from poor people to give to the rich?!? I feel so enlightened by his genius.

What a maroon...

Update (6/23/05):

I recently installed the new version of Netscape and haven't changed my homepage from the standard Netscape landing page. When I logged in this morning, I was greeted with a story entitled: "Oh My Gosh! Guess Who Pays NO Taxes?" I can't seem to link this story, so I'll just quote a mess of it here. It backs up the comments made in the story above:

Oh My Gosh! Guess Who Pays NO Taxes?

Fully 32.4 percent of Americans paid no taxes at all for tax year 2004, up from 25.2 percent in 2000, according to a new report from the Tax Foundation. Before you start screaming about the rich shirking their fair share of the federal tax burden, know this: The people who don't pay taxes are primarily low-income, young, female-headed households who work part-time and are beneficiaries of the $1,000 per-child tax credit or the Earned Income Credit.

Tax Foundation economists say that the 32.4 percent who pay no taxes after they took advantage of perfectly legal tax credits and deductions translates into a record 42.5 million Americans. But it doesn't end there. Approximately 15 million individuals and families earned some income in 2004, but it was so little they didn't have to file a tax return. That brings the total to 57.5 million who pay nothing. And we're not done yet. One tax return often represents several people so when the dependents are included in this no-tax sum, it amounts to roughly 120 million Americans or 40 percent of the U.S. population. And that doesn't count the millions who paid just a very small amount in taxes.

Here's the rub, according to the Tax Foundation: We have become a nation divided. There is an ever-growing class of people who pay no taxes and a shrinking class of people who do.

Who are the non-payers? Fully 91 percent of them earned less than $30,000 annually and 96 percent earned less than $40,000. They are young with more than a third under 25 and 54 percent younger than 35. More than half are single women or families where the primary wage earner is a woman. Fully 79 percent are white, 16 percent are African American and 3.2 percent are Asian Americans. (Hispanic Americans are not included in the racial category since Hispanic individuals can be of any race. When they are included as such, 15 percent of those who paid no taxes are Hispanic.)

What does this mean? The Tax Foundation says the findings raise serious questions about the future of the U.S. income tax system.

Interesting, no? So all the talk about Republicans (and Bush specifically) only giving tax cuts to the rich is pure bunk according to Netscape News (powered by CNN, of all people). The amount of lower-income people not paying taxes has increased by 7% since Bush went into office. But relaying these facts throws a big ol' bunch of talking points used by Kerry and the Dems out the window. I'll bet their talking points don't change a bit, though. I know that in my little world, my life-long Democrat union-guy father shrugged these facts off with no problem... ;)