The 'one percent' avoiding their fair share of taxes … again
How Government Helps the 1 Percent
By E.J. Dionne - January 15, 2015
WASHINGTON -- You may think that government takes a lot of money from the wealthy and gives it to poor people. You might also assume that the rich pay a lot to support government while the poor pay a pittance.
There is nothing wrong with you if you believe this. Our public discourse is dominated by these ideas, and you'd probably feel foolish challenging them. After Mitt Romney's comments on the 47 percent blew up on him, conservatives have largely given up talking publicly about their "makers versus takers" distinction. But much of the right's rhetoric and many of its policies are still based on such notions.
It is thus a public service that the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) has issued a report showing that at the state and local level, government is, indeed, engaged in redistribution -- but it's redistribution from the poor and the middle class to the wealthy.
It's entirely true that better-off people pay more in federal income taxes than the less well-to-do. But this leaves out not only Social Security taxes, but also what's going on elsewhere.
The institute found that in 2015, the poorest fifth of Americans will pay, on average, 10.9 percent of their incomes in state and local taxes and the middle fifth will pay 9.4 percent. But the top 1 percent will pay states and localities only 5.4 percent of their incomes in taxes.
(Read more here.)
By E.J. Dionne - January 15, 2015
WASHINGTON -- You may think that government takes a lot of money from the wealthy and gives it to poor people. You might also assume that the rich pay a lot to support government while the poor pay a pittance.
There is nothing wrong with you if you believe this. Our public discourse is dominated by these ideas, and you'd probably feel foolish challenging them. After Mitt Romney's comments on the 47 percent blew up on him, conservatives have largely given up talking publicly about their "makers versus takers" distinction. But much of the right's rhetoric and many of its policies are still based on such notions.
It is thus a public service that the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) has issued a report showing that at the state and local level, government is, indeed, engaged in redistribution -- but it's redistribution from the poor and the middle class to the wealthy.
It's entirely true that better-off people pay more in federal income taxes than the less well-to-do. But this leaves out not only Social Security taxes, but also what's going on elsewhere.
The institute found that in 2015, the poorest fifth of Americans will pay, on average, 10.9 percent of their incomes in state and local taxes and the middle fifth will pay 9.4 percent. But the top 1 percent will pay states and localities only 5.4 percent of their incomes in taxes.
(Read more here.)
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