There is a lot of talk about how we need to increase taxes for the richest Americans. People spout lines about how the rich need to pay “their fair share.” What these people never do is actually look into how much the richest Americans pay in taxes. Solely because I like to rain on peoples’ parades I looked into the matter.
I’ve discovered that the richest 1% of Americans pay 40% of the federal income tax. That means of all the money stolen by the government via income tax 1% of Americans pay 40% of it. In dollars that means the top 1% pay more than the lowest 95%.
Here’s the raw data on the percentage of income taxes per income bracket. I’d say the top 1% are already paying their “fair share” and then some. Maybe instead of looking to gouge these people which gives them cause to consider moving somewhere else (and remember these rich people generally own companies that employ a lot of people) our government should look at reducing the amount of money they spent. I’ll help them out here.
First and foremost bring our overseas troops back home. Our spending on national offense defense is a huge majority of our spending. Cancel all government approved bailouts, if a company is facing bankruptcy they did something wrong and their assets could be sold off to small start up companies who actually have good ideas. Eliminate welfare and social security, we can plan for our retirements better than the government. Disband some of the hundreds of federal agencies because frankly we don’t need an agency that exists only to ensure taxes and regulations on alcohol, tobacco, and firearms are followed. Hell if the government follows my ideas we won’t even need a federal income tax to make ends meet.
You and your facts!
I agree that we need to cut spending, especially in ‘defense’, but we’ll always have federal income tax (roads, national security, etc.). We can do without a lot of federal programs/departments that exist today (especially the ATF), but I know a lot of people who depend on social security and medicaid to live. It will be really interesting to see what happens when the SS coffers dry, as they inevitably will.
That said, I don’t see any problem with repealing the Bush tax cuts, which many economists came out to oppose (http://www.epi.org/publications/entry/econ_stmt_2003/) at the time and were a complete failure.
Although I agree that we’ll always have a federal income tax I don’t believe we need it. Roads really should be a state thing if not privatized (as Texas has with some highways).
Currently the federal government uses highway funds more for coercion than actual productivity. Highway funds are withheld unless states follow federal guidelines. Although this may seem find it isn’t when you look at several cases of abuse. Montana didn’t have a speed limit on many highways because they are sparsely populated and long stretches of straight road. The federal government threatened to withhold highway funds unless Montana implemented a speed limit on all highways. This is a minor case but shows my point.
National security is a joke in this country. We spend more on so-called defense than the gross national product of many countries. Of course they “defenses” include invading other countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan that are of no threat to us.
I wouldn’t have a problem with social security if I was able to opt out of it. The main problem with social security is the government forces you to place funds into an account that gains no interest and doesn’t adjust for inflation. Due to inflation the money you put in is actually worth less when you retire. If I was able to keep that money I could invest it and increase my net worth but that option is not available to me.