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Posts tagged ‘Taxes’

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Obama: Tea Partiers Should Thank Me for Cutting Taxes

OBAMA: We cut taxes for 95 percent of working Americans just like I promised we would on the campaign. […] So I’ve been a little amused over the last couple days where people have been having these rallies about taxes. You would think they would be saying, “Thank you!” That’s what you’d think!

As I mentioned yesterday, federal income taxes are at historically low levels for middle-income families. Check out my post on the subject here.

April 16, 2010 National Politics, Tea Party Marc
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Federal Income Taxes at Historically Low Levels for Middle-Income Families

According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities,

A family of four in the exact middle of the income spectrum will pay only 4.6 percent of its income in federal income taxes this year, according to a new analysis by the Urban Institute-Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center. This is the second-lowest percentage in the past 50 years.

Of course the Tea Party crowd still thinks that taxes are way high, right?  In a recent CBS News/New York Times poll, 52 percent of Tea Party supporters believe that “their taxes are fair.” The poll also goes on to say that 62 percent of Americans overall “describe the income taxes they’ll pay this year as fair” and that “just one in five Americans say they support the Tea Party movement.”

Despite all of this, a separate CBS poll found that “64 percent of Tea Party supporters think the administration has raised taxes.” Wow, Tea Partiers aren’t to good with the facts. Go figure.

The reality is that “federal taxes are very considerably lower by every measure since Obama became president…In fact, 40% of Obama’s stimulus package involved tax cuts.”

I guess the facts don’t work well for them.

April 15, 2010 National Politics, Tea Party Marc
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Some Tea on the Rocks?

I’ve long thought that the tea partiers were drinking something a bit stronger than tea. Apparently, I was right!

At a March 16th Tea Party demonstration on Capital Hill, attendees were asked a wide-ranging number of questions by the Frum Forum – including some on taxes. One of the questions asked was, “Are taxes higher, lower or the same as when Obama was inaugurated?” 67 percent (or two-thirds) of tea partiers believed that taxes are now higher, 29 percent believed that they are the same and only 3 percent believed that they were lower.

According to Bruce Bartlett:

…federal taxes are very considerably lower by every measure since Obama became president. In fact, 40% of Obama’s stimulus package involved tax cuts. These include the Making Work Pay Credit, which reduces federal taxes for all taxpayers with incomes below $75,000 by between $400 and $800.

According to the JCT, last year’s $787 billion stimulus bill, enacted with no Republican support, reduced federal taxes by almost $100 billion in 2009 and another $222 billion this year. The Tax Policy Center, a private research group, estimates that close to 90% of all taxpayers got a tax cut last year and almost 100% of those in the $50,000 income range. For those making between $40,000 and $50,000, the average tax cut was $472; for those making between $50,000 and $75,000, the tax cut averaged $522. No taxpayer anywhere in the country had his or her taxes increased as a consequence of Obama’s policies.

As Einstein once said, “If the facts don’t fit the theory, change the facts.” The Tea Party gets an A+ for that!

March 19, 2010 economy Marc