Mitt Romney and the 47%
Since the Romney campaign and his Republican surrogates are “doubling down” on the narrative that if you support Obama are probably a parasite who lives off the government and take no “personal responsibility and care for their lives”, let’s take a moment to get some facts straight, shall we?
— 53.6 percent of households pay the federal income tax. 46.4 percent of American households paid no federal income tax in 2011. Romney did get that figure right, but saying these 47% of households pay “no taxes” is patently false. These households pay city/state taxes, property taxes and sales taxes. If we add these taxes up, these folks are paying A LOT of taxes.
— 28.3 percent of households pay no federal income tax, but they do pay the payroll tax. Those households have a zero or negative federal income tax because they generally quailfy for tax deductions like children, education expenses and other legitimate and legal tax deductions
— 10.3 percent of households pay no federal income tax because they’re retired and elderly. Generally speaking, retired folks who live off social security as their sole income do not get taxed because they spent 60+ years paying into the system through taxes. Surely, Romney wouldn’t be proposing that we tax these people.
— 6.9 percent of households (non-elderly) have incomes less than $20,000 per year. I wonder if Mitt Romney has ever had to live on $20,000 a year. Probably not because I think he’d realize that it is a 24/7 struggle, a greater struggle if you are trying to raise a family on this kind of salary. And by the by, these folks, most likely pay city/state taxes and sales taxes on things like food, clothes and necessities.
— Most interesting figure in Tax Policy Center 2011 data is this one: There are 24,000 households with incomes of $533,000 to $2.2 million with zero income tax liability, and 3,000 tax filers with incomes above $2.2 million with the same federal income tax liability as most of those with incomes barely above the poverty level. Yep, folks, our tax code is perfectly fair and equitable. Oh and by the way, I think since Romney is hammering 47% of America about their taxes, I’d really love to see his tax returns now.
(Source: NY Times // Washington Post)
