Taxing Numbers

by digby

For those of you who might find yourself arguing with a teabagger today, Campaign For America’s Future has put together a nice little primer on what Tax Day really means for average Americans.

$604:
The average tax cut the working poor got in 2009 under President Obama.

$22:
The average tax cut the working poor got under President Bush’s tax cuts.

10 percent:
The increase in the average tax return that most working families are receiving this year due to tax cuts enacted under President Obama.

66.7 percent:
The percentage of U.S.-owned corporations that paid no income tax in 2005, according to the Government Accountability Office.

The average American is receiving a refund of nearly $3,000—up more than 10 percent over last year—thanks to the Obama tax cuts for 95 percent of Americans [The White House]. Tax reductions that benefit working families include the Making Work Pay tax cut ($400 for individuals, $800 for couples) and changes in the child tax credit and the earned income tax credit that made more people eligible to take those deductions.

Families in the bottom 20 percent of income (up to $19,792 in 2009) received an average tax cut of $604 under the 2009 tax cuts [Citizens for Tax Justice]. The 2001 and 2006 tax cuts under President Bush resulted in an average tax cut for the bottom 20 percent of income earners of just $22 [Tax Policy Center]. The next 20 percent of earners (making up to $38,000 in 2009) got an average tax cut of $628 under the 2009 tax cut. The same group only got an average reduction of $360 under the Bush tax cuts.

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These numbers will only upset them, of course, because no matter how much you do for the middle class, as long as the poor are also benefiting, teabaggers are unhappy. They really don’t like poor people.

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