“I am the 53% subsidizing you so you can hang out on Wall Street and complain”
by digby
Hey does everyone remember this?
CNN’s Erick Erickson wants people to know that he pays taxes, and he thinks that the Occupy Wall Street protesters should stop whining.
The CNN contributor, who also founded the conservative blog RedState, helped launch “We Are The 53%” to counter the “We Are The 99 Percent” Tumblr. The site says that it features messages from “the 53% of income-earners who pay taxes” and “refuse to b-tch about it.”
Erickson posted a picture of himself holding a scribbled message that read, “I work 3 jobs. I have a house I can’t sell. My family insurance costs are outrageous. But I don’t blame Wall Street. Suck it up you whiners. I am the 53% subsidizing you so you can hang out on Wall Street and complain.”
He was talking about the real scofflaws, the ones Michele Bachmann insisted needed to ante up at least the price of a couple of Happy Meals to be considered Americans.
Fox & Friends: “Is that fair?” On the April 9 edition of Fox News’ Fox & Friends, after co-host Gretchen Carlson stated that “yesterday we were reporting a story that 47 percent of all Americans don’t pay any taxes,” Fox Business host Stuart Varney stated: “Yes, 47 percent of households pay not a single dime in taxes. And some of those households actually make a profit from the Treasury.” Co-host Steve Doocy asked, “Is that fair?”
Greta Van Susteren: “Is it fair for half the country to be paying all the federal income tax?” On the April 7 edition of Fox News’ On the Record, host Greta Van Susteren noted the report and said, “Is it fair for half the country to be paying all the federal income tax?” Her guest, former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA), said: “You’re talking about people who are, you know, earning $50,000 a year who have kids, four kids. And they — because of deductions and other things, they don’t pay any income tax, and they may be eligible for a refundable tax credit above the fact that they don’t pay any income taxes. … [W]hen you reach the point where people feel like they don’t have to pay anything and they’re getting money out of the Treasury for nothing, then there’s no end to the amount of government that people want.”
Sean Hannity: ‘[I]t seems like, at this point, what incentive is there going to be for the people that are paying taxes?” On the April 8 edition of his Fox News show, Sean Hannity said: “But there was a big report today. It came up on the AP. It was the Drudge headline last night before I went to bed. And I got here in Grand Rapids, and I’m reading the Internet, and 50 percent of Americans no longer pay taxes. They don’t pay income taxes. So we — and it seems like, at this point, what incentive is there going to be for the people that are paying taxes?”
Las Vegas Review Journal: “[W]hen people get something for nothing, they have every incentive to continue voting to forward the bills for their goodies to someone else.”
Indeed. Someone ought to ask these folks whether it’s just the senior citizens and the working poor families who need to chip in or whether these fine folks ought to be part of that 53% too:
It so happens that this summer the Internal Revenue Service released data from the 400 individual income tax returns reporting the highest adjusted gross income. This elite ultrarich group earned on average $202 million in 2009, the latest year available. And buried in the data is the startling disclosure that six of the 400 paid no federal income tax.
The I.R.S. has never before disclosed that last fact.
Not even Mr. Romney, with reported 2010 income of $21.7 million, qualifies for membership in this select group of 400. But the data provides a window into the financial lives and tax rates of the superrich. Since the I.R.S. doesn’t release data for the tiny percentage of Americans at Mr. Romney’s income level, the 400 are the closest proxy.
And that data demonstrates that the ultrarich can and do reduce their tax liability to very low levels, even zero. Besides the six who paid no federal income tax, the I.R.S. reported that 27 paid from zero to 10 percent of their adjusted gross incomes and another 89 paid between 10 and 15 percent, which is close to the 13.9 percent rate that Mr. Romney disclosed that he paid in 2010. That means that more than a quarter of the people earning an average of over $200 million in 2009 paid less than 15 percent of their adjusted gross income in taxes.
When Erickson said “Suck it up you whiners. I am the 53% subsidizing you so you can hang out on Wall Street and complain,” I’m fairly sure he sure didn’t know he was talking about Mitt Romney. But he was.
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