What do you think about Rush's idiotic article "proving" only the rich pay taxes...........?

Question

First graph says, "top 5 percent" of wage earners pay 53.25% of the taxes. He uses the misleading "top 5 percent" and pretends it means people who earned 5% of the money are paying 53.25% of the taxes. The funny part: watch the income curve of the three graphs. The first has the top 5% paying 53% of the taxes because they earn about that percent of the money, which he leaves out. Notice that when he goes onto the "top 10% of wage earners" and the total percent of tax paid barely changes, just to 64.89%, he is showing that it really is just a handful of millionaires at the top who make all the money - the first 5% had to pay 53% of the taxes because they made about that percent of the money, while the poor second 5% - the people who he adds to make his second chart - only change things by about 11%. As anyone knows, this is because they only make about 11% of the money. Look how fast income earned drops off: first 5% make about 50% of money, next 5% make about 10%. Brilliant lies!

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/menu/top_50__of_wage_earners_pay_96_09__of_income_taxes.guest.html

As I said, Figures don't lie, but liars can figure.

This is the full article on Rush's "facts" Read em and weep.


http://www.moderateindependent.com/v1i15taxnumbers.htm

Answer 1

All that means is that if you try hard enough you can make any statistics say anything you want. Or you can just pay someone to do surveys in a way that proves your point. People like Warren Buffet who said " there's a class war going on in this country, and we're (meaning the rich),winning", or Jerry Springer who's been on both sides of the wealth line and said that the system is rigged, for the rich, and against everyone else. That's getting the story straight from the horses mouth, and you really can't get any more from the horses mouth than Warren Buffet, so that's who I listen to.

Answer 2

I don't know all the details, but to the extent you have to determine who is earning the income - as well as who is paying the taxes - to get a fuller picture, you have a point. It wouldn't be the first time that Rush - or any other political commentator - was spinning.

I think a flat tax - one rate with very, very limited deductions and an exemption for the poorest - would alleviate much of the problems.

There IS a potential problem if fewer than a majority of Americans actually pay taxes - then the impulse would be to vote for representatives who would only "soak the rich" and damage their incentives to earn, to everyone's detriment.

Everyone (or almost everyone) should have some "skin in the game" and bear some of the burden. A flat tax would help towards accomplishing this. You make more, you pay more. But the percentage is the same. And when taxes are cut, everyone gets a break.

If the point is that income inequality in and of itself is deemed an evil, then I have to disagree.

Answer 3

I didn't bother reading your long *** lying question, but I will tell you one thing.

I know for A FACT that an NFL player who made 6 million dollars in 2005 was taxed 1.5 million dollars. (he is the father of my friend's baby). Now if that's not a lot, tell me what is. Secondly.. my boyfriend who makes about 24,000 a year got a huge tax refund (he hid it from me probably to buy me something... haha wishful thinking).... so are you saying that a DEMOCRAT will give the middle class more tax cuts???

I mean I'm not saying it's fair because geez that leaves him with 4.5 million dollars... but he's paying a lot more than I'm paying. I'm curious of the percentage of how much he pays is equal to the percentage I pay on a 50,000 income... that is the real question. cause if one person is entitled to a tax cut, so is the other one, no matter how rich or poor

Answer 4

I've not seen the article, but the statistics do show that those in the upper percentages pay more in taxes. And it is not proportionate to how much money they make. Those that are paying 53.25% of all taxes are not making 53.25% of all income. They're making less than that.

Answer 5

Try offering a straight across the board tax of %5 and the rich will scream..ill gladly take it as 28% of my pay is removed in taxes ..5% across the board and no refunds and the debit will be payed now about corporations that whine and say well we will just pull out of America .. go for it but your import taxes will be increased to pay for the unemployment you caused! PS i wouldn't believe anything rush Limbaugh says his mind is too clouded with vicoden

Answer 6

I think what he was getting at (or at least what I'm getting at) is that people complain about tax cuts for the wealthy by citing the dollar numbers of how much the top 1%, 5%, etc get from bush's tax cuts when the rich are the ones who in fact pay the most in taxes to begin with. How can you call a tax system that goes from people paying nothing to people paying 40% of their income fair?

I know people who went to college for free because they were poor while us in the middle class have to pay for almost all of it. I was lucky to have my grandparents pay off a huge chunk of it, 4500 a trimester for 2 years. I got a whopping 800 bucks per year for having above a 1200 on my SATs and going to school out of state. No other scholarships. I worked more than a few 80 hour weeks during senior year, and worked 60+ hour weeks every week every summer and winter break the rest of the 4 years, to help cover rent and pay down a little bit of tuition. My parents took out tens of thousand in parents plus loans (they won't tell me how much, or let me pay them back). After all the long hours and all the help I've gotten from family... I still owed a hair under 30k at the end of school. All while the trailer trash kid got 100k in grants just for being poor.

Thankfully, I'm (at 22) already making more than either of my parents were and will be making six figures before I'm 30. I'm one of the lucky ones I guess.

If anything, that article you posted on the question I asked proved me right. The system screws the middle class, but the people you always complain about getting screwed are the poor. What's wrong with a flat tax?

Answer 7

You really don't understand this, do you? He's not misleading anyone. You are simply not getting it.

The more money you make, the more you must pay in taxes. That's why the top earners pay the vast majority of the taxes that the government steals out of our pockets.

If 100 people are paying taxes, the top five on that list are paying 53.25% of the total bill. The other 95 are paying the other 46.75%.

The point is that it's not fair. Why should you be punished for succeeding? If we didn't have the welfare class, Social Security, and extremely over-paid government employees, we would not need such a huge tax burden on everyone.

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Answer 8

It is a repuglican myth and talking point, all you have to do is multiply the number of middle income people by the amount of average tax paid to find out how foolish this is, but by god they will stick to their guns. There are a whole lot more middle income people then there are million and billionairs. It is a shame that they get away with it and are not sued to put their money where their mouth is.

Answer 9

As opposed to the Dem talking point that tax cuts only benefit the rich? I guess we're all rich then.

It's also funny when "sheep" call other "sheep" sheep. Such delightful arrogance.

And the Democrats are already saying that they are going to raise our taxes. Can we really tax ourselves into prosperity? Do you really want the government to have more of your money?
And yes, our government is too big.

Answer 10

Actually, that particular piece from Rush is straight facts and well thought, which is a lot more than I can say about your rant and the bizarre diatribe you linked to.