A spokesman for Paul Ryan was talking about how the NEW budget was different because it "broadened the Tax Base". Once more the Republicans are trying to get that lazy and shiftless 47% of non-income tax payers to pay their fair share. We keep hearing about this group of mooches and I think it's high time we took a close look at just who they are.
According to the non-partisan Tax Policy Center (www.taxpolicycenter.org), here is a breakdown of non-income tax paying Americans. 79% of Americans earn less than $30,000 per year. That's right, 79% make less than $30,000 per year. With deductions for children and earned Income tax credits they generally fall below the required level. Another group are college students, some of whom are working but few earn enough to pay income tax. Here's the group that I am most incensed about their being attacked; retired seniors with Social Security as their only source of income. When Republicans talk about the people who pay no income tax not having a "stake in society", I think about the seniors I know that paid income tax for decades and are now struggling on a fixed income. I think of the society they built and fostered and the cruelty of the people who have targeted everyone so poor that they pay no income tax. I think we should talk about this group every chance we get. I think we need to collar our Representatives and ask them point blank if they think seniors on fixed incomes are mooches and don't have a stake in our society.
There is one more group that the Tax Policy Center says pays no income tax. It is a group of 7000 multi-millionaires who have managed to use loopholes and tax shelters to avoid paying ANY income tax.
So what does it say about our country that almost 80% of us will have to work for 33 years to earn a total lifetime income of one million dollars. Another group of millionaires pays nothing. Meanwhile Paul Ryan and his fans in the Republican party are insulting fixed income seniors by claiming they have no stake in the society they built with their own hands.