The GOP bobble-heads keep repeating this 'red herring', with no explanation, with no proof:
"Do you know, that 47% of Americans pay No Taxes."
They put that out into the Media-ether, and then shout "Class Warfare -- Leave the Millionaires alone!" (and the GOP Senate follows the air-head advice, refusing to raise even minor taxes on Millionaires, to save the jobs of Teachers, EMTs, and Firefighters.)
Here's their followup fish-wrap canard, that the GOP Tax-haters use to try to rationalize it all:
Don't you know ... those Millionaires are the 'Job Creators'?
Unemployed America you understand right? ... Who wants to pay taxes anyways? If you're in the 47%, apparently No One -- at least according to the GOP dittoheads.
So here's a few fact-checks from The Atlantic. Funny thing about those who pay No Federal Income Taxes -- they cover the gamut of income ranges from very poor to the super rich.
Signs of Dissent: What About the 47% Who Pay No Federal Income Taxes?
by Derek Thompson, Senior Editor, The Atlantic -- Oct 14 2011
Who pays no federal income taxes? I think I have the picture you're looking for. This pie chart shows the households paying no FIT [federal income taxes], with all inset numbers in thousands of dollars (i.e.: 20-30 means $20,000 to $30,000). The big takeaway is that more than half of the folks who pay no federal income tax make less than $20,000 a year. It is also true that 7,000 millionaires paid no federal income tax last year (more on that factoid here).
Do the 47 percent still pay taxes? Most of them do. About one seventh of the country pays no payroll taxes or federal income taxes, because of deductions and working benefits. But when you zoom out to 30,000 feet, you see that even the poorest 20 percent of taxpayers fork over about 1/20th of their income to the IRS through all federal taxes, including payroll, income, and excise. The next 20 percent hands over about 1/8th. With each quintile, the effective tax rate increases.
larger
[...]
The 47 Percent are mostly working families whose tax burden was offset by the Earned Income Tax Credit (invented by Republican President Ford and expanded many times since the 1970s), the child tax credit (doubled under Bush), and other exemptions passed into law by Republican and Democratic legislatures and administrations. The 47 Percent aren't running away from the law; they're benefiting from 30 years of Congress whittling away at the tax code.
Funny thing about the poor who "Pay No {Federal} Income Taxes" -- they still pay up to 1/8th of their meager incomes in several other taxes. The IRS is not the only tax game in town. Just ask Herman Cain, about how many Taxes he could create.
OK, here's another moral-character gut-check essay, that challenges the Class Warfare canard on the grounds of 'economic fairness'. ... But who says fairness and compassion and opportunity, has anything to do with it -- certainly not the GOP punditry ...
Who Is Committing Class Warfare?
by Michael Sean Winters, National Catholic Reporter -- Oct 20, 2011
The GOP has been complaining that President Obama’s plan to pay for his jobs bill by instituting a surtax on those who make more than one million dollars per year amounts to “class warfare.” But, in fact, it is the GOP that is engaging in class warfare.
This fact came up during Tuesday night’s debate. Anderson Cooper, the moderator, asked the following question: “Congresswoman Bachmann, you said in the last debate that everyone should pay something. Does that mean that you would raise taxes on the 47 percent of Americans who currently don’t pay taxes?” Last night, Mr. Cooper admitted that he had made a mistake. It is not true that 47 percent of Americans currently don’t pay taxes. Where did this come from? It has been a staple of GOP talking points and campaign speeches all year. Mr. Cooper was simply repeating what he had heard before, many times.
47 percent of Americans do not pay any federal income taxes. The reason? Because they make so little money in the first place, they do not have any taxable income at the end of the year. They still pay federal payroll taxes. They still pay federal excise taxes. They still pay state and local property taxes. They still pay state and local sales taxes. (If Herman Cain has his way they will soon pay federal sales tax too, as well as federal income tax.) These various taxes the poor do pay represent a higher percentage of their income than most Americans pay in federal income tax. If you make 25k per year, chances are you do not qualify for kinds of deductions that help middle class taxpayers lower their tax bill, such as the home mortgage interest deduction. Nor do you benefit from the specific tax shelters and loopholes that litter the federal tax code, permitting the very wealthy to avoid paying a higher share of their income in taxes.
In GOP Bottlehead land, It's all about Winning. It's all about Wealth acquisition -- Economic fairness and opportunity for all, has very little to do with it. As Koch spokesman, Herman Cain sums it up, "if you're poor -- it's your own fault." ... at least according to our GOP Bottlehead standards.
Oh yes, and creating their own little "economic narratives", that they can repeat on an endless loop, inside their finely crafted Echo-Chambers ... well that is why those 'red herring' salesmen get paid the big bucks, in the first place. Manufacturing a fabled-reality, is 'hard-work'.
Hard Work ... not like all those protesters, and unemployed people, and homeless cast-offs, --who still aren't paying their fair share in taxes! When will they get with the program, and just go out there and Find a Job!?
Those Millionaire 'Job Creators' would really like to know?
PS. Please! Don't raise taxes on the 'Job Creators', America ... or else they might leave or something ...
(and please don't vote for congress reps, who will -- raise their Taxes ... oh the horrors of paying an extra $500 on every 100K made over a million. They might have to change their brand of mustard of something, if we did that. Gasp! Oh the Humanity ...)