Bloomberg reports that, according to recently released IRS data, “the average tax rate paid by the richest 400 Americans fell by a third to 17.2 percent through the first six years of the Bush administration and their average income doubled to $263.3 million.” Much of their income came from capital gains resulting from the Bush tax cuts.
The Wonk Room has noted how “the conservative approach of putting big corporations and the very wealthy ahead of the middle class has failed to create prosperity that can be shared by all Americans.” (Source-ThinkProgress)
7 comments:
Well, there we have it. The rich really do get richer, and sh!t really rolls down hill.
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So what if people get ahead...don't we all *want* to get ahead? Why the class warfare?
The fact is, the top 5% income earners in the US pay *over 55%* of the federal income tax, which then gets given 'free' to those at the bottom. Dollar for dollar, the rich already pay far more than they ought to in taxes because of a class-warfare mentality and 'gimme-gimme' attitude by the majority of voters....
So what if people get ahead...don't we all *want* to get ahead? Why the class warfare?
The fact is, the top 5% income earners in the US pay *over 55%* of the federal income tax, which then gets given 'free' to those at the bottom. Dollar for dollar, the rich already pay far more than they ought to in taxes because of a class-warfare mentality and 'gimme-gimme' attitude by the majority of voters....
So what if people get ahead...don't we all *want* to get ahead? Why the class warfare?
The fact is, the top 5% income earners in the US pay *over 55%* of the federal income tax, which then gets given 'free' to those at the bottom. Dollar for dollar, the rich already pay far more than they ought to in taxes because of a class-warfare mentality and 'gimme-gimme' attitude by the majority of voters....
This is really going to anger the "Bush haters".
Bush shoe thrower statue is being removed
It isn't getting ahead that's the problem, it's how it's handled. The Republicans' way of handling things, their obsession with returning us to the Gilded Age, has been a disaster for the country as a whole:
"For most of the past 70 years, the U.S. economy has grown at a steady clip, generating perpetually higher incomes and wealth for American households. But since 2000, the story is starkly different.
The past decade was the worst for the U.S. economy in modern times, a sharp reversal from a long period of prosperity that is leading economists and policymakers to fundamentally rethink the underpinnings of the nation's growth.
It was, according to a wide range of data, a lost decade for American workers. The decade began in a moment of triumphalism -- there was a current of thought among economists in 1999 that recessions were a thing of the past. By the end, there were two, bookends to a debt-driven expansion that was neither robust nor sustainable.
There has been zero net job creation since December 1999. No previous decade going back to the 1940s had job growth of less than 20 percent...."
Hat tip, Andrew Sullivan.
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