Tea Party Tax Protests and Reality
A good friend of mine, who has friends who are active in the Tea Party movement, stopped to chat today and asked me if I could find a source of information that would refute her friend’s claim that no part of the personal income tax that we pay goes towards anything other than paying the interest on the national debt.
I love a challenge and set to work. I was astonished to find the number of sites from the right wing populists and Tea Party members who rant incoherently about unfair taxes and tout something called a Fair Tax (a regressive consumption tax) and call for the abolishment of the 16th Amendment to the Constitution, which gave Congress the power to levy an income tax. Color me ignorant. But not any longer. After some searching, I found the website of the National Priorities Project. They offer a pie chart calculator that informs you what portion of the income tax that you pay goes to what expenditure. To make it easy to calculate a percentage, I used the figure of $100 so that the portions paid are easily convertible to percentages.
As an example: 29% goes to the Military and 8% goes to Military debt. Only 3% goes to Education. Is that skewed or what?
Here is the link to the calculator. It provides interesting information about how the Federal Government spends our tax money. Warning: I’m one of those evil liberals and progressives and the National Priorities Project is supported by other evil liberals and progressives, among them ACORN, Code Pink, NAACP, labor unions, the League of Women Voters and assorted other socialists, communists, and pinko types. Just so you know ….
This video gives you an introduction to National Priorities:
Why weren’t they all screaming about our taxes last year?
Anyway, I read that we’re paying the lowest taxes that we’ve had in a long time.
Jeff, what’s wrong with the Fair Tax? I thought it made sense and that it’s…fair–the more you can afford to buy, the more you can afford to pay. No?
http://www.GreenerPastures–ACityGirlGoesCountry.blogspot.com
Debi,
If you make $10,000 per year and spend $9,800 of that on essentials (food, clothing, shelter, gasoline) and pay 15% tax, you’ve paid $1,470 in taxes. If you make $500,000 per year and spend $9,800 on essentials, you’ve also spent $1,470 in taxes. The first family has $200 left for discretionary income, while the second family has $490,200 left for discretionary income. If you think that the second family would use that discretionary income to alleviate the plight of the poor, think again. The social Darwinist propaganda of the last 30 years (survival of the fittest – if you are poor, it is your own fault) needs to come to a screeching halt. If it continues much longer, I predict blood in the streets, in the form of armed rebellion. Those who live in gated communities will have to hire their own armies to beat back the advancing hordes intent on re-distributing the wealth by force.
The Fair Tax plays right into the hands of the financial elite and does nothing at all to alleviate poverty, illiteracy, or lack of health insurance. There is an ethical issue here that is discussed among ethicists and it is called “Good for one, bad for all” and “Bad for one, good for all.” A “Fair Tax” is “good for one, bad for all” while the progressive income tax that we have is “bad for one, good for all”. Those for a Fair Tax are not their brother’s keeper; those opposed to a Fair Tax are. Taxes are the price of living in a civilized society and those pushing for a “Fair Tax” have not thought through the implications of their greedy desires. I pay school taxes, even though I have no children because I have a vested interest in an educated citizenry to govern society. I don’t know that I am getting a good return on my investment (it is obvious to me that Tea Party protesters are not particularly well educated), but I’m still willing to make that investment.
A Flat Tax society would closely resemble feudal Europe, where the feudal barons lorded it over the peasantry. I do not wish to live in such a society … do you want your grandchildren to?
Interesting…though I’m not surprised about the military taking the biggest chunk. Where’s Social Security? Under “Government”? I assume Medicare is under “Medical”…
Social Security and Medicare would be under “Health”.