Soupmann

Pay attention to the words used. We hear this one often:

"The top 1% of earners pay 39.89% of all the federal INDIVIDUAL INCOME TAXES. The bottom 50% of earners pay just 2.99% of those taxes."

While this statement may be true it has several major flaws.

1) The term INCOME TAX excludes taxes on wages collected for FICA. FICA taxes are approximately 15% of earning with no deductions allowed. FICA taxes make up approximately 35 - 40 % of all federal TAX RECEIPTS. INDIVIDUAL INCOME TAXES are about the same and the rest generally comes from CORPORATE INCOME TAXES.

The Executive and Congressional branches of our government keep borrowing FICA taxes to subsidize large spending deficits and support a lower income tax.

The share of FICA taxes as a % of income is grossly skewed to the lower level income earners since after approximately $95,000 high wage earners stop paying FICA. Also low wage earners die younger and never get back the money they loaned to the Fed's. Raising the cap will only feed to pig more.

This is like robbing the poor to pay the rich! Don't be Robinhoodwinked!

I've never been a big "W" fan but he had it right when he suggested we PRIVATIZE SOCIAL SECURITY and let low wage earners pass on a life time of earnings saved to their children, not the Federal government

2) The second problem with the statement above is it ignores the fact that the top 1% make a lot more money. They therefore pay a lot more tax $. As a % of income the disparity is not as great. Add in FICA taxes paid and the % of income paid to the Fed's is nearly equal.

Should the rich and poor share equally when it comes to supporting our federal government. That is a separate debate, but let me end with two questions.

Why do business lobbyist spend so much money wining and dining congress?

Who benefits most when the federal government spends money on roads, commerce, international relations and defense?