President Obama's path to reducing deficits is being laughed off as playing politics with demagoguery while deficits widen. But, according to Obama, "this is not class warfare; it's math."
As the Associated Press Fact Check points out:
This year, households making more than $1 million will pay an average of 29.1 percent of their income in federal taxes, including income taxes and payroll taxes, according to the Tax Policy Center, a Washington think tank.
Households making between $50,000 and $75,000 will pay 15 percent of their income in federal taxes.
Lower-income households will pay less. For example, households making between $40,000 and $50,000 will pay an average of 12.5 percent of their income in federal taxes. Households making between $20,000 and $30,000 will pay 5.7 percent.
That doesn't include the higher charges paid by middle-class and wealthier retirees for Part B Medicare, nor the lesser amounts received by them from Social Security relative to prior incomes or contributions.
One of the areas targeted by the tax-more crowd is capital gains. There's no recognition of the extra risks involved in investing, that much of the gains represent inflation, or that much or all of the amounts invested were already taxed.
Then, there's the false assertion that the middle class suffered most during the better pre-recession period.
No. In the seven years from 2001-2007 (inclusive), not only did the middle class get at least its fair share of overall income growth, the income gap between the rich and the middle class actually got smaller. In an apparent paradox, the same Census Bureau database that told us that median household income was essentially unchanged in 2007 versus 2000 also tells us that the middle class enjoyed a higher income growth rate than did either the overall economy or the rich—and therefore that their income gap versus the rich had actually decreased.
President Obama may be appealing to his base, largely made up of those who pay little or no taxes already, but is cementing the attitude of those who are productive who see him as further undermining and stalling economic recovery.
The International Monetary Fund just downgraded the economic outlook for the US (and Europe). Yeah, higher taxes should fix that, huh?
Tracked: Sep 20, 21:01