Jealousy of the poor. With their newfound ‘reverse envy’ right wing Republicans have found their true center, their essential core and they are not bashful about it. I’ll give them this: it’s one thing to promote low taxes and extreme wealth concentration for the richest of the rich, but it takes a certain type of “in YOUR face, GOD!” kind of chutzpah to actually justify such hording on how relatively little federal income tax (they conveniently omit all the other federal taxes) the poorest of the poor pay. (Of course, their argument is totally hypocritical and nongenuine--you won't find the first one of them who would trade places with a low earner).
They also forget to mention the share of INCOME the very rich get as compared to everyone else and the share of WEALTH they enjoy, through hard work, corrupt bought and paid-for tax shemes, inheritance or otherwise. The gap in AFTER-TAX INCOME—did you get that, AFTER TAX income—between the top 1% and middle and poorest fifths of America more than TRIPLED between 1979 and 2007 (Congressional Budget Office, the period for which data was available).
This increase in after-tax income inequality reflects the huge increases in PRE-tax incomes, which for the top 1% rose 141%--ONE HUNDRED FORTY ONE PER CENT—from 1979-2007. The top 1%’s share of pre-tax income more than DOUBLED in that same period from 9.3% to 19.4%. Thus, by 2007 the top 1% had before-tax incomes that were 24 times higher than the middle fifth of our population, a share that nearly tripled since 1979.
NOTE to those so envious of the poor who pay little to no INCOME tax (but pay a huge amount, a much, much larger % than the very rich in payroll taxes—something we WILL change when power flows back to the PEOPLE): it is this very GROWTH of the top 1%’s share of total before-tax income that has led to their having a growing share of total taxes.
IN FACT, the ACTUAL percentage Of the income that they paid in federal taxes—the “effective federal tax rate”—for the top 1 percent declined from 33.0 % of income in 2000 to 29.5% in 2007. While the share of total federal taxes paid by the top 1% rose from 25.5% in 2000 to 28.1% in 2007, this rise was due to the fact that they received a growing share of total before-tax income, 19.4% in 2007 vs 17.8% in 2000.
Bottom line: the effective tax rate of the top 1% of household was lower in 2007 than at any time since 1990! Unquestionably and undeniably, their tax burdens DECREASED, a drop that was accelerated by Bush’s tax cuts.
What made America truly great was the utterly essential resort to a higher degree of shared sacrifice/shared rewards that marked our emergence from the Great Depression and then post-WWII. The Greatest Generation didn’t blink an eye with top tax rates of 90%--NINETY PERCENT. Even the last truly great Republican president, Dwight David Eisenhower, knew the critical importance of our social contract, of an activist government that serves the greater good , of a vibrant middle class, and thus never sought to lower the tax rates (Kennedy did, to 70% where it remained until Reagan went way too far in lowering it to 28% before later raising to around 35%, still way too low).
To blame America’s ills, or in this case, the deficit, i.e. insufficient tax revenues, on working-poor families barely making it is not merely cruel and heartless. It is wrong and worse, it does not reflect America’s true values.
