Boy, Are Americans Not Overtaxed

[Lakhota]

By Jared Bernstein

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) just released a very thorough update of their high quality household income series, adding data through 2009. There's so much in here it will be weeks before I can work my way through all of its nooks and crannies, but so far, something's jumped out at me.

First, man, I gotta say: when it comes to federal taxation, there is just no case in the data to be made in any way, shape or form that we Americans are overtaxed. Not middle income, not high income -- not the overall average. Not relative to other countries (figure 4 here), and not relative to our historical rates back to 1979.

The top line in the first figure below shows the decline in the overall average federal tax rate for all households. The rate is relatively constant at around 22% from 1979 to the big tax cuts of the George W. Bush years (the ones we're still arguing about!), when they start to slide; the decline at the end of the series is both cyclical and policy driven, as pretax income declines in the Great Recession and Recovery Act tax cuts lowered tax liabilities.

By the end of the series, the average U.S. household was paying 17.4% of their income in federal taxes, compared to 22% in 1979. The main culprit is the income tax; all the others in the figure stay relatively constant.

More: Jared Bernstein: Boy, Are Americans Not Overtaxed

CBO | The Distribution of Household Income and Federal Taxes, 2008 and 2009

 

[Lakhota]

How Government Helps Us - The New York Times

Government is Good - A Day in Your Life

Government is Good - Why We Need More, Not Less, Government

Government is Good - The Forgotten Achievements of Government

Government is Good - Taxes are Good

 

[Charles_Main]

Why don't you compare our Tax Rates to the Rest of the world?

That is if you really want to make an Educated Assumption about if we are taxed to much or not.

lol

 

[Oddball]

Huffy-Puffy....

 

[Si modo]

Comparing other countries? Yeah, let's keep it that way. It works.

Get a job and pay your share.

 

[LordBrownTrout]

Government is their religion.

 

[Charles_Main]

I actually have to give you Credit for not pretending to be anything other than the Big Government, Nanny State Liberal you are.

Kudos

Most Liberals wont admit that they think the Government is all that is pure and good in the world, and we should turn to it for all our Problems.

at least you do!

 

[LordBrownTrout]

I actually have to give you Credit for not pretending to be anything other than the Big Government, Nanny State Liberal you are.

Kudos

Most Liberals wont admit that they think the Government is all that is pure and good in the world, and we should turn to it for all our Problems.

at least you do!

At least he's honest. He loves government caressing and fondling every orifice

 

[Charles_Main]

Comparing other countries? Yeah, let's keep it that way. It works.

Get a job and pay your share.

I have a Job and Pay my Share asshole, Why would you assume I do not?

Dude says were not over taxed. What do you base that on, Unless you compare how much were taxed to other countries? why don't we look at how much we tax and spend on Education per pupil, Compared to other countries. That alone should tell you that More Taxes and more spending does not mean better Results. we spend more per Pupil than Most nations, yet test low.

It's pretty easy to see if you take off the Partisan Blinders for a min.

 

[Stephanie]

What a government loving idiot..

Lakhota probably doesn't pay Federal income taxes so what do they care

 

[Si modo]

Comparing other countries? Yeah, let's keep it that way. It works.

Get a job and pay your share.

I have a Job and Pay my Share asshole, Why would you assume I do not?

Dude says were not over taxed. What do you base that on, Unless you compare how much were taxed to other countries? why don't we look at how much we tax and spend on Education per pupil, Compared to other countries. That alone should tell you that More Taxes and more spending does not mean better Results. we spend more per Pupil than Most nations, yet test low.

It's pretty easy to see if you take off the Partisan Blinders for a min.

LOL. I was posting to the OP. Not you.

I guess I should have quoted it. I honestly thought I was the first one posting to the idiot Lahkota's thread.

Oops.


(I agree with you, btw.)

 

[Charles_Main]

Comparing other countries? Yeah, let's keep it that way. It works.

Get a job and pay your share.

I have a Job and Pay my Share asshole, Why would you assume I do not?

Dude says were not over taxed. What do you base that on, Unless you compare how much were taxed to other countries? why don't we look at how much we tax and spend on Education per pupil, Compared to other countries. That alone should tell you that More Taxes and more spending does not mean better Results. we spend more per Pupil than Most nations, yet test low.

It's pretty easy to see if you take off the Partisan Blinders for a min.

LOL. I was posting to the OP. Not you.

I guess I should have quoted it. I honestly thought I was the first one posting to the idiot Lahkota's thread.

Oops.


(I agree with you, btw.)

Oh lol sorry.

 

[Si modo]

I have a Job and Pay my Share asshole, Why would you assume I do not?

Dude says were not over taxed. What do you base that on, Unless you compare how much were taxed to other countries? why don't we look at how much we tax and spend on Education per pupil, Compared to other countries. That alone should tell you that More Taxes and more spending does not mean better Results. we spend more per Pupil than Most nations, yet test low.

It's pretty easy to see if you take off the Partisan Blinders for a min.

LOL. I was posting to the OP. Not you.

I guess I should have quoted it. I honestly thought I was the first one posting to the idiot Lahkota's thread.

Oops.


(I agree with you, btw.)

Oh lol sorry.

No prob.

So, my point, that I obviously wasn't clear on at all is: If the idiot OP's point is that we need to be taxed more because other countries are, that's like saying we need to wear shit-scented perfume because other countries smell that way.

Maybe we are a great country for several reasons.

But, then again, the OP is a racist, an anti-semite, a bigot, and a moron.

 

[Charles_Main]

LOL. I was posting to the OP. Not you.

I guess I should have quoted it. I honestly thought I was the first one posting to the idiot Lahkota's thread.

Oops.


(I agree with you, btw.)

Oh lol sorry.

No prob.

So, my point, that I obviously wasn't clear on at all is: If the idiot OP's point is that we need to be taxed more because other countries are, that's like saying we need to wear shit-scented perfume because other countries smell that way.

Maybe we are a great country for several reasons.

But, then again, the OP is a racist, an anti-semite, a bigot, and a moron.

That's just it though, were not taxed less than Other Countries. Liberals like to Compare only Federal Taxes and claim we pay less than Other Nations. They ignore State and Local Taxes when they do this.

America has one of the Most Progressive Tax Systems in the world already, all this talk about the Rich and their "fair share" is BS. All these claims we don't pay enough are BS. The average person that makes enough to actually pay Federal Taxes, Pays over 60% of their income in Taxes once you add up Fed, State and Local.

 

[tinydancer]

Yeah and the CBO just released these figures. Really makes one wonder how much more the leeches really want the wealthy to pay?

I did hear a caller to Hannity one day actually say that he thought the wealthy should pay 90% in tax.
Sheesh. Let us really just start calling these people what they are. Leeches and bloodsuckers.

CBO: The wealthly pay 70 percent of taxes

Wealthy Americans earn about 50 percent of all income but pay nearly 70 percent of the federal tax burden, according to the latest analysis Tuesday by the Congressional Budget Office — though the agency said the very richest have seen their share of taxes fall the last few years.

CBO looked at 2007 through 2009 and found the bottom 20 percent of American earners paid just three-tenths of a percent of the total tax burden, while the richest 20 percent paid 67.9 percent of taxes.

3/10% from the bottom to 67.9% at the top. But the wealthy aren't paying their fair share according to the bullshit handed down from high at the White House and sucked up by the class envy morons who just take and take and take.

CBO: The wealthly pay 70 percent of taxes - Washington Times

 

[Skull Pilot]

"I want the people of America to be able to work less for the government and more for themselves. I want them to have the rewards of their own industry. This is the chief meaning of freedom. Until we can reestablish a condition under which the earnings of the people can be kept by the people, we are bound to suffer a very severe and distinct curtailment of our liberty."
President Calvin Coolidge

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Most of the Democrat base pays no federal tax and apparently don't even have id

 

[whitehall]

Why does the left worry about the US being "relative to other countries"? Who the fuk wants to be taxed to death like Euros who are forced to drive around on skateboards because a pint of gas costs $5.00 and live in apartments the size of bathrooms because the government steals every dime they earn?

 

[Si modo]

Oh lol sorry.

No prob.

So, my point, that I obviously wasn't clear on at all is: If the idiot OP's point is that we need to be taxed more because other countries are, that's like saying we need to wear shit-scented perfume because other countries smell that way.

Maybe we are a great country for several reasons.

But, then again, the OP is a racist, an anti-semite, a bigot, and a moron.

That's just it though, were not taxed less than Other Countries. Liberals like to Compare only Federal Taxes and claim we pay less than Other Nations. They ignore State and Local Taxes when they do this.

America has one of the Most Progressive Tax Systems in the world already, all this talk about the Rich and their "fair share" is BS. All these claims we don't pay enough are BS. The average person that makes enough to actually pay Federal Taxes, Pays over 60% of their income in Taxes once you add up Fed, State and Local.

Very true. Over 60% taxes.

But, then again, the OP is a racist, an anti-semite, a bigot, and a moron.

 

[hortysir]

Name one country that has been successful in taxing them selves into prosperity.