This is a mantra that we often hear from Democratic politicians. Often, they’ll try to justify a new tax by assuring the voters that it’s being enacted to “get the rich to pay their fair share.” Or they will condemn a tax cutting scheme as being one aimed to relieve the rich of their “fair share” burden of taxation.
Now, with the current split make-up of Congress, it is unlikely that we will see much in the way of changes to the tax code. So, it may be a good time to take a look at just where the federal income tax burden does fall.
In previous times, taxes provide politicians with the opportunity to spend more money. And big- spending politicians see that spending as a source of power and job security. After all, they can brag to voters at election time about all the government-funded goodies they’ve provided.
That is less true today since our current crop of political elites in Washington are spending money as if it grew on trees. Taxes seem to be irrelevant. The recent deadlock over the election of a new Speaker of the House partly grew out of the frustration of some patriotic Congress critters who recognize the danger that this is to our country. Those in opposition to McCarthy have been deemed as Russian operatives and domestic terrorists who have threatened the domestic tranquility of the nation.. In actuality they stood up for all Americans by demanding a change to how Washington operates.
Something has to change in Washington. Appropriations for different programs need to be reduced. Omnibus bills need to be banned. The bloated bureaucracy in the Federal Government needs to be slashed. In addition, if America is ever to return to some sort of fiscal sanity, tax revenues will need to increase.
When it comes time to reduce money going out, the Democrats will resist cuts to programs by claiming that if only the rich paid their fair share, we would not need to make cuts. Hogwash!
Let’s look at the facts.
People who earn more than $480,000 a year make up the top 1 percent of income earners in the country. Yet that 1 percent pays more than 39 percent of all federal taxes.
Looking at the top 10 percent of income earners, meaning those who earn more than $138,000 a year, we find that these taxpayers pay more than 70 percent of federal income taxes.
Looking at the other end of the spectrum, we find that the bottom 50 percent of income earners, meaning those who make $39,000 a year or less, pay just under 3 percent of federal income taxes. Meanwhile, nearly 45 percent of households in America pay no federal income tax at all.
So, who is not paying their fair share? Nearly half the wage earners in the country are not paying ANY federal income tax. If tax revenues were actually funding all the nonsense that the federal government engages in and all wage earners had “skin in the game,” there would be much greater pushback over insane things like sending $100 billion to a dictator in Ukraine. (And let me not get started on the ongoing money-laundering operation going on there.)
Our politicians need to be held accountable for foisting incredible debt on our children, grand-children and great grand-children. Our national debt is not the result of failing to tax the rich. It’s the product of politicians who have a serious spending problem and who aren’t willing to fix their own bad habits.