Second, the Federal tax burden and the Federal budget are not equivalent. That's why we have trillion-plus deficits in the first place.
Third, your two facts cover different income ranges. The "wealthy" is a broader category than just the now-famous top 1 percent, which pays about 40 percent of income taxes, and 28 percent of all Federal taxes, including payroll. The total income of that 1 percent - $1.3 trillion - was what I was referring to when comparing it to the deficit. Go back and look.
For the top 10 percent, those numbers are 73 and 55 percent respectively. If you confiscated the top 10 percent's total income, something around $3.4 trillion, you could pay almost the entire Federal budget.
The top quintile - 25 percent - pays 86 percent of income taxes and 69 percent of all Federal taxes. Their total income is a bit over $5 trillion, so if you annihilate them we'd have a healthy surplus.
And sure as hell scrapping the Bush tax cuts for "the rich" and the "millionaire taxes" proposed by the Democrats wouldn't make a dent.
(All incomes on the chart I used were "adjusted gross incomes.")
You tell me where "prosperous" starts, and I'll tell you the exact numbers.
Flame » in reply to Re: P.S. "Tax break?"
First of all, nobody said "entire." Remember the Bowser Lesson.
The whole thread (28 posts)
- One thing is obvious - the US military is unable to win modern wars.
- Sure looks like there's room for cuts
- The military and entitlements are a huge chunk of the budget.
- Re: The military and entitlements are a huge chunk of the budget.
- Re: The military and entitlements are a huge chunk of the budget.