Growls

I never cease to be amazed by the knowledge of some callers to talk radio about who pays income taxes and how much. And it’s not just “average citizens.” Even worse, it’s people who should know the answer, i.e., members of Congress. On his January 8, 2008 radio show, Neal Boortz interviewed Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), who represents Cleveland and southwestern Cuyahoga County, to see if the Congressman “knew what he was talking about.” Here’s how Boortz summarized the interview:

“He didn't.

“Kucinich has a long history in congress of trying to shift the tax burden away from low and middle income Americans onto the backs of the high-achievers. In 2003 he sponsored a law that would give a "refundable" tax credit to protect low and middle income people from having to pay Social Security or Payroll taxes. Kucinich, who is chairman of the "Progressive" (that means liberal) Caucus also proposed something he called a "tax dividend" for every man, woman and child. Well, almost every man, woman and child. He wanted to limit the dividends paid to the top 1% of income earners to only 1% of the total tax cut.

“Well, there's our clue. Kucinich doesn't have any idea in the world how much of the total taxes are paid by the top one percent of income earners ... so I asked him two questions:

What percentage of total income is earned by the top 1% of income earners?
What percentage of total federal income taxes are paid by the top 1% of income earners.

“The answers were astounding. Congressman Dennis Kucinich thinks that the top 1% of income earners earns about 60% of all income, and he thinks that they pay about 15% of all income taxes. The fact is that the top 1% of all income earners pull in about 18% of all income and pay 38.8% of all income taxes.

“This is an astounding level of ignorance on such an important statistic. You can excuse a mother of three loading up on Happy Meals for her porky little kids at a McDonalds for not knowing this .. .but a member of the Congress? Remember .. the Clinton tax increase passed the House of Representatives by only one vote ... and Kucinich was there ... there without a clue ... there voting for a tax increase on people he thought earned 60% of all the income but were only paying 15% of all income taxes. Inexcusable.”

So that ACTA members and Growls readers aren’t found as ignorant as one member of Congress, here are answers to the first question, as reported by the National Taxpayers Union for the individual income tax for tax year 2008:

Percentiles/AGI Threshold/Percentage of Federal Personal Income Tax Paid

• Top 1% -- $380,354 -- 38.02%
• Top 5% -- $159,619 -- 58.72%
• Top 10% -- $113,799 -- 69.94%
• Top 25% -- $67,280 -- 86.34%
• Top 50% -- $33,048 --97.30%

Here's hoping Arlington taxpayers won't be as ignorant as members of Congress. And rather than use the phrase President Obama likes to use, i.e., “shared sacrifice,” it seems President Obama's "millionaires and billionaires" are bearing an unfair sacrifice.

UPDATE (8/4/11): An editorial that will appear in tomorrow's Investor's Business Dailey (IBD) will cover much of the above material under the headline "Class Warfare." IBD points out:

"So which group isn't paying its fair share? Which cohort is not sharing in the sacrifice? The facts show that the richest Americans are the ones who have been largely financing Washington's careless spending and the buildup of the soul-killing welfare state. Why should they have to pay even more?

"We would also like to know why the president gets to define "fair" for the purposes of tax collecting. Why does his definition and that of his party outweigh any other definitions of what is fair? That seems like the job of an emperor, not an elected president who swore that he would uphold the Constitution and its 14th Amendment requirement that everyone receive equal treatment under the law.

"We're not making this point to defend wealthy Americans and to malign the poor. We're simply trying to make an argument for true fairness — not a political or ideological "fairness."

"We also wish to point out that adding to the tax burden of the rich causes problems because it is the rich whose investments expand the economy and create jobs. Taxing the top earners isn't a solution. It's a backward move."

The IBD editorial includes a "cleaner" version of the above "chart" of NTU income and tax data.