As you have probably read by now, VP nominee Joe Biden (D-Unaware) has declared that paying higher taxes is patriotic.
So it seems that the affluent folks here in the U.S. must be considered the most patriotic–after all, the top 50% of wage-earners (those with an adjusted gross income of approximately $32,000 or more) pay over 97% of all the taxes. (And who knew that $32,000 a year could be considered affluent?) The top 5% pays over 60% of all taxes, while the top 1% accounts for nearly 40% of all taxes paid. In fact, the more you earn, the more patriotic you must be!
Conversely, the less you earn, the less you pay. According to the National Tax Payers Union, 32% of all those filing income tax returns paid nothing at all. So out of all ~135 million of us who file, about 1/3 of us can’t be considered patriotic at all, according to Sen. Biden.
Thanks a lot, Joe. You’ve just filed 43 million citizens (many of whom might have otherwise been persuaded to vote for you and your running-mate) in the “Not a Patriot” column. I’m sure they’re proud of their new status. You might want to keep reminding them of it.
Stoutcat
May 6, 2009 at 11:05 am |
[...] Joe Biden’s claim that it is patriotic to pay higher taxes notwithstanding, it seems to be a truth univerally acknowledged, that citizens in possession of a good income do not want to pay more taxes. And given the opportunity to do so, they usually don’t. [...]