Bartlett: Tea Partiers Clueless About Taxes

I guess that's why you never see tea party contestants on Jeopardy.

The key word here is "Federal" leaving out state and local.

You have to wonder how the Coffee Party would answer the questions as well as the State Run Media. But I am sure Frum will not even consider going there.

"The key word here is "Federal" leaving out state and local."

I corrected you already on this KBM, states that depend on property tax have lost huge amounts of revenue because as values fell so did taxes. I doubt you could show me anyplace where anyone is paying more taxes now than they were in 2006.

I guess that's why you never see tea party contestants on Jeopardy.

Alex, can I have 'Who's That Nig@&*' for $200?

Wrong again Danni. Here is the first site from the first search.

nyc.gov

09/10 17.088% 13.241% 12.743% 10.426%
Average Annual Tax Rate 08/09 16.196% 12.596% 12.137% 10.241%
08/09
3rd & 4th Qtr. 16.787% 13.053% 12.577% 10.612%
08/09
1st & 2nd Qtr. 15.605% 12.139% 11.698% 9.870%
07/08 15.434% 11.928% 11.577% 10.059%
06/07 16.118% 12.737% 12.007% 10.997%
05/06 15.746% 12.396% 12.309% 11.306%
04/05 15.094% 12.216% 12.553% 11.558%
03/04 14.550% 12.620% 12.418% 11.431%

Of course they're misinformed. they watch fox. they listen to limbaugh. the primary sources of corporate propoganda in our great nation.

I wonder how many of them heard GDP and how many of them were thinking about how much of THEIR income is being sucked up by taxes.

Sure, there are 50% that pay no federal taxes, so if the other 50% pay 40% of their income, that probably balances.

The tax not mention is the inflation tax. The federal government has the unique ability to create money to finance its deficits. As sure as the Law of Supply and Demand, an excess supply of money dilutes its value, creating what we know as price inflation. A dollar buys less and less every year.

Since about 1970, wages have not kept up with rising prices due to dollar inflation. Hapless consumers and businessmen borrowed to the hilt to make up the difference. Now they are tapped out. Now they are going into default. As federal debt continues to spiral out of control, living standards will deteriorate in proportion.,

"There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which one man in a million is able to diagnose."
-John Maynard Keynes

Sure, there are 50% that pay no federal taxes

A complete fabrication if you're talking about "No" taxes.

Everyone pays 15.5% in SS taxes. We've been forced to borrow from the SS Trust fund to make up for deficits created by the incredibly irresponsible and dishonest party you vote for.

If you consider such things as the unearned income tax credit, many people who pay social security taxes still get a much larger refund than the TOTAL amount of federal taxes. People who make 20K a year that get 5K or more in tax refunds.

You might argue that they are somehow 'owed' more than they make, but lets call it welfare, which is what it really is.

AU-hole, as I have stated numerous times, I left the repub party BECAUSE they spent like demorats. Also, if you wanted to be HONEST, you would have to say that YOUR party has raided SS right along with the Repubs... and you haven't left them.

The key word here is "Federal" leaving out state and local.

You have to wonder how the Coffee Party would answer the questions as well as the State Run Media. But I am sure Frum will not even consider going there.

#2 | Posted by KBM at 2010-03-20 07:10 PM | Reply | F

Let's add Democrat and Republican citizens as well. I really doubt any of them have a clue of this tax trivia.

We need to CONSERVE million/billionaires. They are being over-harvested. Pretty soon we'll get to the point we won't have any left. We can't bleed what won't breed. In an economic sense, that is...

Perhaps we can get them on the Endangered Species List?

Everyone pays 15.5% in SS taxes. We've been forced to borrow from the SS Trust fund to make up for deficits created by the incredibly irresponsible and dishonest party you vote for.

#9 | Posted by AMERICANUNITY at 2010-03-21 08:43 AM | Reply | Flag: Flag: (Choose)
FunnyNewsworthyOffensiveAbusiv
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If you consider such things as the unearned income tax credit, many people who pay social security taxes still get a much larger refund than the TOTAL amount of federal taxes. People who make 20K a year that get 5K or more in tax refunds

#10 | Posted by 1libertarian at 2010-03-21 09:02 AM | Reply | Flag:

AU 1Lib is correct many people get back much more than they pay in federal or fica taxes. However what 1Lib is not counting on is other taxes like excise tax and sales tax. Since folks who get more back than they pay probably spend 100% of their income to stay alive they are paying about as much in other taxes as they are getting back, so what it really is is a transfer from the federal government to the state local government while remaining revenue neutral to the individual.

So no it is not welfare for the people getting back the big refunds they don't deserve but welfare for the state and local government.

Okay, this is random: I have an article I want to post, but I think I might have first read the article here. It's timely again because teacher quality came up a few days back, I referenced it, and none of those readers appeared to know what I was talking about. But I don't want to post a link to an article already posted here. How can I find out if it was posted here (it would have been about two weeks ago)? l traveled the site looking for archives, I searched my own comments to see if I could find the link, and I even played with Google (sounds dirty; it wasn't... this time). So how do I know if the article has previously been posted here?

Prag who cares? Articles are posted multiple times all the time and most of us here have the atention span of a goldfish. No worries that anyone will notice.

LMAO, Tao. You have a point. I'm just trying to be a responsible DR blogger. Rare, I know. (I just realized one can read that last line in multiple ways. Hm.)

So how do I know if the article has previously been posted here?

I am far from being an expert on anything here, but I have found old threads by searching the Search Web link and clicking on Drudge. I put in tachers and there are about 463 posted threads. Not sure if that is what you mean or if "teacher" was in the headline.

Where is Hans when you need him????

Crispee--the article was on a guy named Lemov, a consultant to schools. Cool stuff about holding teachers accountable but putting meaning and method to accountability and training. Teacher was not in the headline. But wait... Nope. No go. I think it was posted on Drudge RePort, and I found it there. Which is odd 'cause I don't go there much anymore. I wonder if someone sent me there, or what. Odd. I'm thinking I'll go ahead and post it. Pretty interesting stuff.

Not sure if this helps, but it looks like it was published on Drudge...

www.loveangeles.com

Of course the tea party is clueless. Take this comment for example, "Sure, there are 50% that pay no federal taxes, so if the other 50% pay 40% of their income, that probably balances."

This tea bagger seems to think that half the country is surviving with no income at all. Apparently nobody ever told him that corporations, who are taxed the most, pass on that expense to the consumers. The consumers pay the corporations taxes and more, they also pay the dividends for the rich shareholders.

The problem is, as I have always said, is Republicans just can't do the math. The richest among us have the sweetest deal in the world and they still don't know it much less understand why.

Well well well, lookie here at what I found!!

Amazingly (*sarcasm*), Bill O'Reilly was the one who made that "50%" claim. Oops! DE- BUNKED!

O'Reilly's tax falsehoods: 50 percent "don't pay any federal income tax

Fox News host Bill O'Reilly falsely asserted that "50 percent of Americans don't pay any federal income tax" and that therefore "the other half is waging the whole war on terror." He also claimed that the estate tax is "unconstitutional," an assertion the Supreme Court rejected in a 1921 decision that has been repeatedly upheld over the years.

While O'Reilly claimed that half of all Americans do not pay income taxes, figures from the Tax Policy Center show that only 37.2 percent of total tax units -- single people or married couples -- pay either zero or negative taxes, or do not file at all, leaving 62.8 percent who do pay taxes.

O'Reilly's claim that the "the other half is waging the whole war on terror" is also false. Most Americans are funding the federal government's expenses, including military spending and foreign aid, though Social Security payroll taxes. The vast majority* of wage-earning Americans pay Social Security taxes on those wages, and as the Congressional Budget Office explains: "Although separate taxes are collected for Social Security, the money left over after benefits are paid is used to fund other government programs or to pay down the debt held by the public." In 2004, that surplus was $151.1 billion, approximately 6.6 percent of the total outlays of the federal government. By contrast, President Bush requested $82 billion in February to fund U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Previously, Congress had allocated $25 billion during fiscal 2005 for those operations.

Further, the General Accounting Office (now called the Government Accountability Office) reportedPDF file in February 2004 that 61 percent of U.S. corporations paid no corporate income taxes between 1996 and 2000.

That corporate number that pay no taxes has gone UP considerably since 2004 to 68%. That includes 28% of the largest corporations in America. 94% who paid taxes paid less than 5% according to the GAO. Many corps. who paid no taxes got tax credits.

www.doonesbury.com

The tax not mention is the inflation tax. The federal government has the unique ability to create money to finance its deficits. As sure as the Law of Supply and Demand, an excess supply of money dilutes its value, creating what we know as price inflation. A dollar buys less and less every year.
Since about 1970, wages have not kept up with rising prices due to dollar inflation. Hapless consumers and businessmen borrowed to the hilt to make up the difference. Now they are tapped out. Now they are going into default. As federal debt continues to spiral out of control, living standards will deteriorate in proportion.,
"There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which one man in a million is able to diagnose."
-John Maynard Keynes

#8 | POSTED BY RAY

Well if Tricky Dick didn't rescind the gold standard it wouldn't be a problem, but of course it is way too late to reinstate anything as it would collapse the G-7 nations in the ensuing deflation.

Let's add Democrat and Republican citizens as well. I really doubt any of them have a clue of this tax trivia.

#11 | Posted by daprof at 2010-03-21 09:13 AM | Reply | Fla

We're not the ones marching on Washington protesting taxes, Dumbass!

White Trash America(tm) has never been known for its financial insights nor its ability to understand how the world functions beyond the waste holding tanks on their doublewides.

-never been known for its financial insights

Like John *Orange Alert* Boner calling today "Armageddon".... the same guy that told America in 1994 that the Clinton Budget would "destroy America".

Of course, it revitalized America, and left a surplus.

This Bartlett guy doesnt have an American perspective or is mistaking us with Chavezuela:
This Country wasnt founded to develop a system of high taxes sinked at a welfare society...

"This Bartlett guy doesnt have an American perspective or is mistaking us with Chavezuela:
This Country wasnt founded to develop a system of high taxes sinked at a welfare society..."

What does this have to do with Bartlett's point? He was talking about how ignorant the Tea Partiers appear to be of the math of taxes in this country. You are leaping wildly.

The key word here is "Federal" leaving out state and local.

You have to wonder how the Coffee Party would answer the questions as well as the State Run Media. But I am sure Frum will not even consider going there.

#2 | Posted by KBM at 2010-03-20 07:10 PM | Reply | Flag:

Just because you and your fellow retards choose to ignore the word 'Federal' is not the fault of the author.

You're still idiots.

We need to CONSERVE million/billionaires. They are being over-harvested. Pretty soon we'll get to the point we won't have any left. We can't bleed what won't breed. In an economic sense, that is...
Perhaps we can get them on the Endangered Species List?

#12 | POSTED BY DAPROF

America was at its most prosperous and least indebted when the distribution of wealth was more even. When we had a thriving middle class. Since then, the wealth has steadily drifted to the top, not by accident, but by the wealthy and powerful USING their wealth and power to rig the game and become MORE wealthy and powerful.

America's distribution of wealth is currently the most uneven it has ever been. Fewer and fewer people have more and more of the country's wealth. And more and more people are having to make do with less. That is not a coincidence.

"Tea Partiers Clueless"

Headline correction.

i dunno. it depends on how the question was asked. I'd say the percentage of taxes we pay - when you take into account state and local taxes (income taxes, use taxes, gas tax, sales tax) - then number is a LOT closer to 40%.

Federal income tax is just one of many taxes we pay...

Everyone pays 15.5% in SS taxes. We've been forced to borrow from the SS Trust fund to make up for deficits created by the incredibly irresponsible and dishonest party you vote for.

#9 | Posted by AMERICANUNITY

That is bullshit. Look at what people that get paid on a 1099 pay in SS.

Of course the tea party is clueless. Take this comment for example, "Sure, there are 50% that pay no federal taxes, so if the other 50% pay 40% of their income, that probably balances."

This tea bagger seems to think that half the country is surviving with no income at all.

You fucking moron. Where did I say they had no income? I said they pay no federal taxes. Big fucking difference. You are the one who is clueless.

The problem is, as I have always said, is Republicans just can't do the math.

And the libs have 1 math equation, it goes something like "how much did you make? Shame on you, send it to the gobt".

The richest among us have the sweetest deal in the world and they still don't know it much less understand why.

#20 | Posted by RingMaster

Hey, Rimjob, if I was one of those people working on the 3rd generation of welfare then you could say I have a sweet deal. When the people who are living in a hammock get out and help make this a better country, you can say that I fair deal. Right now, paying for all those bums, I get a raw deal.

And, yes, I have read the constitution. There was never an intent to have a nanny state. They realized that government was the problem, not the solution, to a host of problems.

"You fucking moron. Where did I say they had no income? I said they pay no federal taxes. Big fucking difference. You are the one who is clueless."

You're the fucking moron. As well as clueless, if you actually believe "they pay no federal taxes". It's like you have no idea what a federal tax is in the first place. Social security taxes are federal taxes. Medicare taxes are federal taxes. Excise taxes are federal taxes. Gasoline taxes include federal taxes. Only idiots believe 50% of people "pay no federal taxes".

LOL!!!

I wonder what kind of answers he would have gotten if he went to a War Protest, or a college, or a Woman's Coffee Chat!

LOL!!

Seems, from the answers, that the Tea Partiers knew quite a bit about a VERY COMPLEX tool of the government.

The fact is is that most Americans would not know the answers to these questions. The system is extremely overly complex.

Just to put it in perspective, the Tax code is, by far, the largest book ever printed in the history of man!

This guy is a fool for printing these results.

And posting it on the Retort is showing a little ignorance to the complexity.

reinheitsgebot, did you read the article before you posted it?

#36 | Posted by Eddie

I honestly hate to even answer your scatter gun, generalized method of posting, but I have to say something.

Yes, the tax code does needs to be simplified. That doesn't excuse whoever is feeding these people with VERY deceptive information about actual tax rates, or that these people still don't bother to find out the truth. The truth is that federal tax rates are at some of the lowest levels they've been in the last 80 years. The constant rhetoric from conservatives is that low taxes create jobs. If that were always true then we should be close to full employment.

And posting it on the Retort is showing a little ignorance to the complexity.

What your post really serves to prove is that the ignorance is with those who don't bother to understand that the very taxes they are complaining about are relatively low. As a matter of fact, they have been too low for a number of years. While it's only part of the solution, the problems that this country is experiencing are not going to be solved without tax increases. The sooner the U.S understands this, the faster we can move forward.

You're the fucking moron. As well as clueless, if you actually believe "they pay no federal taxes". It's like you have no idea what a federal tax is in the first place. Social security taxes are federal taxes. Medicare taxes are federal taxes. Excise taxes are federal taxes. Gasoline taxes include federal taxes. Only idiots believe 50% of people "pay no federal taxes".

#35 | Posted by Danforth

50% pay no FEDERAL INCOME TAX. A growing percentage pay NO FEDERAL TAX OF ANY SORT.

My cuz who made less than 20K, and got a 6K tax refund (and food stamps for most of the year, as well as Indian bennies FYI) did not pay 1 GOD DAMN CENT to the federal govt when all was said and done last year.

Not 1 FUCKING penny. And she is not the only one in the country, not by a long shot. So, instead of contributing to this country's expenses, what did she do? She did buy a couple of new cell phones, she has cable TV. She has a computer. She has a 4 yr old car.

When I was younger, her living conditions would have been middle class. 3 kids, each have their own bedroom. A tv in each kids rooms. Game systems in 2 of them. DVD players, etc. Now it is considered poverty. When did this happen?

1lib I got a fat return too. I went ahead and bought a monster flat screen with my return. Paying Taxes is for suckers like you.

"50% pay no FEDERAL INCOME TAX"

Too bad you didn't say that initially.

"My cuz who made less than 20K, and got a 6K tax refund"

She's got 3 kids. She got what's called the Earned Income Credit, which is an extraordinarily efficient way to distribute welfare without creating another government bureaucracy.

And her situation is rather rare. To suggest or even imply she represents half the country is bullshit.

"I got a fat return...Paying Taxes is for suckers like you."

If you got a "fat" return, it's because you were overwithheld at work, and ended up loaning the government interest-free money for the better part of the year. That's nothing to pat yourself on the back for: it's poor tax planning.

Maybe they should have "Polled" Sarah Pailface.

I'd pole her.

BTW-Has anyone called Glenn Beck this morning? We may have to check on him since the suicide watch went into effect...

When does the count down start for Limbush leaving the country. Bye, Bye.

The article is simply disingenuous. It assumes that everyone pays the average and therefore no one is over taxed. The average is simply a budget number. The reality is that between tax credits for the so called poor and untaxable and unlimited entitlement programs combined with an inability to effectively tax the rich, the middle class does pay a disproportionate share of federal income taxes. Even Warren Buffet will attest to that. In addition, additonal taxes at the state and local levels as well as increased taxes on goods and services are targeted specifically toward the middle class. At present, this is my local tax calculator:
23% Federal Income Tax
3% State Income Tax
6% SSI
2% FICA
10% Local Sales Tax
44% Sub-Total

Add to this taxes on fuel, phone, internet, cable, resturants, etc. and I am currently spending at least 50% of every dollar on taxes.

IMO, the solution to the problem has got to be centered around getting everyone, rich and poor alike, involved and at least attempting to pull their own weight. Everyone has got to have a stake in the solution or at some point the system fails. And then there are no entitlement programs OR corporate welfare because there is NO one to fund them.

My cuz who made less than 20K, and got a 6K tax refund (and food stamps for most of the year, as well as Indian bennies FYI) did not pay 1 GOD DAMN CENT to the federal govt when all was said and done last year.

#38 | Posted by 1libertarian

So you're related to NANC? Good for you.