I feel like *every* time someone posts that "30% of people pay NO INCOME TAXES" that I must remind them that:

a) You're talking simply about one specific tax (FICA). Note that they very likely paid Social Security and Medicare on their payroll earnings.

b) Oh, don't forget PAYROLL TAXES either (effectively doubling the SS and Medicare)

c) Oh, and don't forget that for people living at/near the poverty line, a larger percentage of their spending is subject to sales tax than those in upper income brackets.

My point is only that if you want to make a point about taxes paid by various income levels, you should do so accurately. Not present the one part of the facts that support your own arguement, and neglect the rest.

Accuracy is not the goal...making the poorest Americans pay for the tax cuts for the richest is the goal.

Fish on...

Todd

DING DING DING we have a winner!

That could be the GOP mantra except that they would be lynched.

Fishy

Isn't it just as funny that when we talk about federal tax breaks and the such that someone always brings up that the poor pay a higher % of their earnings in sales tax? Seeing how the sales tax is a state tax vice federal and actually means nothing in the topic at hand?

If you are so poor that the majority of your money is spent on food(not fast food) then your tax burden would be pretty low.

There can be no argument, however, that sales tax is a disproportionate tax.....and that is bad.
Income tax at the state level is the way to go......but the problem, at least with this State is that everyone fears that if we had a State income tax, the sales tax wouldn't be dropped out of the picture. And considering the past, I'd say that the fear is legitimate.

It would be impossible to make a sales tax progressive in nature. Folks would have to carry around income statements so that store clerks could determine which rate to charge.

It doesn't make a bit of difference in the long run anyway. CA has both a state and a sales tax but Governor Moonbeam wants to raise the sales tax and increase the "millionaire" tax. He doesn't care if the poor have to pay a disproportionate share of their income for things they buy.