Hannity ignored payroll taxes to claim nearly 50% don't pay taxes
SUMMARY: Sean Hannity claimed that nearly "50 percent of Americans don't pay anything in taxes." In fact, according to the Tax Policy Center, more than 88 percent of families and independent individuals will pay payroll or income taxes for 2009.
Broadcasting from a tea-party protest in Atlanta, Sean Hannity asked during the April 15 edition of his Fox News program, "When did we ever get to a point of America where we're nearly where the point where 50 percent of Americans don't pay anything in taxes? Nothing." In fact, according to an April 14 Tax Policy Center (TPC) analysis, under current law, more than 88 percent of families and independent individuals in the United States will pay payroll or income taxes for 2009. As Media Matters for America has noted, under the Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA), workers who are not self-employed are required to pay 6.2 percent of all their wages up to a wage-adjusted yearly cap ($106,800 for 2009) for Social Security, and 1.45 percent of all their wages for Medicare. Those who are self-employed are required to pay 12.4 percent of all their wages up to the cap for Social Security, and 2.9 percent of all their wages for Medicare.
According to the TPC analysis, under current law, 11.6 percent of families and independent individuals will owe "[z]ero or [n]egative [i]ncome and [p]ayroll [t]ax" in 2009, and 43.4 percent of families and independent individuals will owe "[z]ero or [n]egative [i]ndividual [i]ncome [t]ax" in 2009.
Moreover, income and payroll taxes are not the only taxes paid by people in this country. In addition to, for example, sales and other state taxes, people in the United States are required to pay applicable federal excise taxes, including 18.4 cents per gallon of gasoline in federal excise taxes.
From the April 15 edition of Fox News' Hannity:
BILL "BUBBA" BUSSEY (radio host): And Sean, the message is very simple: We want to reform the tax code, make it simple, make it fair, and then we want government to quit spending money that it belongs to our grandkids.
They're running the printing press, and you don't have to know anything more than eighth-grade civics and math to realize if they print $1.2 trillion, throw it in the economy, that means the money that we've worked hard for is worth less.
HANNITY: Listen, guys, that's a dead-on point. And I'm going to tell you one other thing. When did we ever get to a point of America where we're nearly where the point where 50 percent of Americans don't pay anything in taxes? Nothing.
BUSSEY: Sean, the latest numbers out are just astounding -- how much that the very few top taxpayers actually pay. I mean, I feel like these taxpayers are disenfranchised. I want them to have a share of the burden just like they wanted a share of the vote.
And let's not forget sales tax, which impacts the working poor much more than it does rich douchebags like Hanniterd.
To be fair, Obama has increased the sales tax on cigarettes, which also impacts the working poor much more. But I'm really biased against cancer sticks, so...to bad, so sad.
Not to start an off-topic discussion, but I would hope you would have the same disdain for liquor.
At 26 seconds someone yells "kill Obama!!!!". Someone should really point this out and use bring back up the new DHS report!!
I think that's called a Plutocracy... and you call us "intellectually immature"?
My heart bleeds for all those overburdened millionaires who pay the "lion's share" of taxes. Boo f***ing Hoo.
I wonder... how many of them would be millionaires or billionaires without all the peons to work in their companies and buy their products?
The people with the most money should pay the most taxes. Period. They are still rich after paying taxes.
According to the CBO, about 50% of the CORPORATIONS in the US don't pay taxes, but apparently that's OK. Billions of dollars in corporate taxes have to be compensated for by the rest of us, but apparently you don't care.
You are openly advocating plutocracy, government by the wealthy. Why do you hate American democracy?
fortheforum6524: Of course rich people pay more in taxes than poor people. What are poor people suppose to pay with? A pound of flesh.
Here are the CBO data: Read the average effective Federal income tax rate: http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/100xx/doc10068/effective_tax_rates_2006.pdf
Sen. John McCain said it very well - people who are doing better should pay more in taxes. That just makes sense, Nobody in this country, or in this world, is "self-made." Every rich person benefits from the infrastructure in place. Did they go to a college or university? Did they build it first and then hire all the professors? How do they drive to work? On roads they first made? Did they use a computer? The World Wide Web? (A US Government invention.) Did they use a copy machine? Technology invented by the US Government.
This article by Robert Reich should interest you :
A Short Citizen's Guide to Kooks, Demagogues, and Right-Wingers On Tax Day
April 15, 2009, 11:36AM No one likes to pay taxes, so tax day typically attracts a range of right-wing Republicans, kooks, and demagogues, all of whom tell us how awful we have it. Herewith a short citizen's guide (that is, a citizen's guide that's short rather than a guide for short citizens) responding to the predictable charges:1. "Americans pay too much in taxes." Wrong: The United States has the lowest taxes of all developed nations.
2. "The rich pay too much! The top ten percent of income earners pay over 72 percent of all income taxes!" Misleading: The main reason the rich pay such a large percent is they've become so much richer than the bottom 90 percent in recent years. If you look at what they pay as individuals -- the percent of their incomes over and above the highest rate below them -- you'll see a steady decline over the years. When Republican Dwight Eisenhower was president, the marginal rate on the highest earners was 91 percent (after deductions and tax credits, closer to 50 percent); by 1980 it was still up there, at 70 percent (an effective rate of closer to 45 percent); under Bill Clinton, it was 38 percent (an effective rate closer to 28 percent).
Look at the after-tax earnings of families and you'll see what's really going on. Between 1980 and 2000, the after-tax earnings of famlies at the top rose more than 150 percent, while the after-tax earnings of families in the middle rose about 10 percent. The Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 raised the after-tax incomes of most Americans by a bit over 1 percent -- but raised the after-tax incomes of millionaires by 4.4 percent.
3. "The bottom 60 percent pay only 3.3 percent of the taxes!" Misleading again. Most Americans are paying more in sales taxes than they ever have. Property taxes have also been rising at a steady clip. And Social Security taxes have also risen (thanks to the Greenspan Commission), while earnings over about $100,000 aren't subject to Social Security taxes. So-called "sin" taxes (mostly beer and cigarettes) have also skyrocketed. All of these taxes take a bigger bite out of the paychecks of people with lower incomes than they do people with higher incomes.
4. "Obama is raising your taxes!" Wrong. Obama is cutting taxes for 95 percent of Americans, by about $400 per person a year -- not a whopping tax cut, to be sure, but not a tax increase by any stretch. Only the top 2 percent will have a tax increase, but even this tax increase is modest. Basically, they go back to the rates they were paying under Bill Clinton (their deductions will be limited to 28 percent, which is only fair). And they won't start paying this until 2011 anyway.
5. "The huge debts we're wracking up will cause your taxes to rise!" Wrong again. When it comes to the national debt, as I've said before, the relevant statistic is the ratio of debt to the gross domestic product. The only sure way to bring that debt down and make it manageable in future years is to get the economy growing again -- which requires that, in the short term, the government spend a lot of money (because consumers and businesses won't). In the long term, the biggest source of concern is rising health-care costs. And that's something Obama and Congress are aiming to tackle.
6. "We have a patriotic duty to stand up against Washington taxes!" Just the opposite. We have a patriotic duty to pay taxes. As multi-billionaire Warrent Buffett put it, "If you stick me down in the middle of Bangladesh or Peru or someplace, you'll find out how much this talent is going to product in the wrong kind of soil. I will be struggling thirty years later." President Teddy Roosevelt made the case in 1906 when he argued in favor of continuing the inheritance tax. "The man of great wealth owes a particular obligation to the state because he derives special advantages from the mere existence of government."
An acquaintance from law school, now a partner in one of Washington's biggest and wealthiest law firms, explained to me one day over lunch how he and his partners use tax rules to create offsetting taxable gains and losses, and then allocate the gains to the firm's foreign partners who don't pay taxes in the United States. That way, they keep the losses here and shelter their income abroad. I noticed he had an American flag lapel pin. "You're supporting our troops," I said, referring to his pin. "Yup," he replied, entirely missing my point.
True patriotism isn't cheap. It's about taking on a fair share of the burden of keeping America going.
Saw that the other day at TomPaine.com. Dude is spot on.
Excellent article. Reich nails it.
Yep, that 10% pays some taxes, they also hold 90% of the wealth so screw 'em. We work every bit as hard as they do everyday. The only difference is they can buy disproportionate political influence and make the rules of the game to benefit themselves. And apparently you're fine with trashing that part of our founding document that states all men are created equal.
Jeez, you're disgusting.
Yep! They hold the wealth and manipulate the laws: "...An acquaintance from law school, now a partner in one of Washington's biggest and wealthiest law firms, explained to me one day over lunch how he and his partners use tax rules to create offsetting taxable gains and losses, and then allocate the gains to the firm's foreign partners who don't pay taxes in the United States. That way, they keep the losses here and shelter their income abroad. I noticed he had an American flag lapel pin. "You're supporting our troops," I said, referring to his pin. "Yup," he replied, entirely missing my point.
True patriotism isn't cheap. It's about taking on a fair share of the burden of keeping America going.
ROUNDHOUSE,I'LL SECOND THAT
These people are stupid. They say half the country doesn't pay taxes and yet they have a douchebag revolution saying that they're taxed enough already. Who do they think they're talking about?
Idiots
Don't look for consistency in conserva-logic. It will give you a head-ache and strain both your eyes and your patience. You will find a Chupacabra dining on the corpse of Jimmy Hoffa before you find any actual principles or logical consistency from these @$$-clowns.
NEOCON logic=do everything to help the rich get richer ans screw the poor and working middle class.
The Republicans are responsible for shifting the tax burden from the wealthy to the rest of us. (see REAGONOMICS)
The working poor are paying more than twice the tax rate of the wealthy. Compare a single minimum wage worker to someone making $100,000 per year. Where I live, the amount of money it takes for a single person to survive on his own is $11,910, This leaves a minimum-wage worker with $2,650.00. Of that, he pays total taxes of about $2,487. That's a tax rate of 94.75%!
Someone making $100,000 will pay, at the maximum, $35,958. That's a rate of 40.83%!
Since the minimum wage worker can't afford adequate health care, he is, in some cases, the person who is ''taxed to death!''
Let's bring back the tax rates of the 1950's when the top marginal rate on the wealthy was over 90%
(REAGANOMICS)
Is it me or are the right wing's usual suspects using the child fallacy more frequently in this debate? To evoke a kneejerk response, they're saying that we should think of the children and our grandchildren before taking on this spending spree. Wasn't this the pro-drug war argument in the late 80s? I think it's like Godwin's Law; if your only defense is "think of the children," you admit that you've lost because you are intellectually bankrupt and appealing to emotionalism. You therefore don't deserve a seat at the adult table. Sit with the kids.
I thought they were all saying at those teaparties that everyone pays too much taxes. Now Hannity says half of us don't.
Muddleheadedness?
Don't look for consistency in conserva-logic. It will give you a head-ache and strain both your eyes and your patience. You will find a Chupacabra dining on the corpse of Jimmy Hoffa before you find any actual principles or logical consistency from these @$$-clowns.
You have to remember not only does Hannity hate the poor, he loves a good ole Tea bagging party and loves to have it both ways. The poor fight the battle while he and his friends rob their pockets
dadre: Listen to the words of Sheer Insannity's new theme song about the Teabaggers - "They're Shutting Detroit Down." In the song, a life-long auto worker (Union member, of course) loses his pension through no fault of his own. The Little One Mark Levin says GM should go BK and the retired autoworkers should lose their promised health care and pension benefits. Insannity says the autoworkers are overpaid.
As Sen. Al Franken would say, "Wow!"
HANNITY AND THAT BARFBAG LEVIN ARE A DISGRACE TO ANY FORM OF HUMAN DECENCY. All they care about are their own pockets and their rich REPUBLICAN pals.
Is anyone in the mainstream media more incompetent than this hack? He's just awful, and gets paid millions for it.
He's not incompetant. He's actually VERY GOOD at his job. You're just mistaken in thinking that his job is that of a journalist or that he is otherwise meant to inform or educate us. He's a paid, professional propagandist... AND HE'S GOOD AT IT!
NICEGUY YOU ARE SO CORRECT All these RIGHT WING talking heads are doing the same thing for the NEO CONSERVATIVE wing of the REPUBLICAN PARTY that DR, JOSEF GOEBBLES did for the NAZI PARTY.
It's amazing. When they want to make a point about high taxes, they always manage to rememebr ALL those "other taxes" we pay. (Sales, Property, State, Local, Estate, GAS, etc...) BUt when they want to fight a tax CUT for the middle class that include 98% of America, but not THEM, suddenly 50% of us pay NO TAXES. I guess half of us are going to live forever as well. (Death and Teaxes, for the C students here!)
Besides, wouldn't they LOVE it if half of America paid no taxes? Aren't they trying to let US keep more of OUR money? Oh... well, yeah... they just want it to be THEIR HALF, so that THEY can keep more (all) of "THEIR" money. (And yet so many people (who are ding better under Obama, tax-wise) still watch these rich, greedy, lying, self-riteous, hypocritical, money-grubing, souless bastards.)
I forgot Liquor and Cigerette taxes! Good call, cArn!
For the mentally challanges libbies on the Board: FICA taxes - "payroll taxes" are payments (not really a tax at all) into your own Social Security savings account. You get this money back and then some - assuming anything is left after the Democrats keep robbing from SS to pay for all thier entitlement programs.
Good grief. I've never seen such stupid comments on a message board! I'd bet the average IQ of media matters (liberal matters) posters / readers is about 40 or so. What's really scarey is these fools also vote! God help us...........
"assuming anything is left after the Democrats keep robbing from SS to pay for all thier entitlement programs."
As opposed to robbing it to pay for wars of choice?
dofus: Who was President and running the US House and Senate when the prescription drug benefit was added to Medicare? Who spent money like drunken sailors, refusing to even provide a means to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? "Thier" entitlement programs - by "thier" you must mean the spend thrift Republicans. The same ones who larded the Defense Budget and Appropriation Bills with wasteful pork barrel and boondoggle spending after 9/11 (read "Mr. Smith Is Dead"). Remember the airborne tanker leasing fiasco? REPUBLICANS!
You are pitifully misinformed, sir.
"into your own Social Security savings account"
No such thing my special friend, no such thing. That little bit of Bush legislation never got past the wet/pipe-dream phase. You really ought to know hwat you're talking about before you start, numbnuts.
RETIRE, If the IQ of us LIBERAL posters is indeed 40 then the collectiv IQ of all the CONS trolling MMFA is about 2 including you. You need to quit listening to all that RIGHT WING PROPAGANDA, its not good for your mental health.
Insannity: Folks earning less than $40K per year don't pay income taxes. You have a problem with that?
Try reading the Congressional Budget Office Report on effective Federal income tax rates!
The Silly Savage used to make the same statement about illegal immigrants - "Oh, they don't pay taxes." BS!
I don't know where they get this number. I was helping a friend with her taxes last weekend. (Actually I was just helping her install Turbo Tax.) She makes well under $40K and she definately paid income tax last year.
Shaggles: Thank you for your comment!
Please read the CBO report referenced above. This is an average based on National data. Individual circumstances vary (also depends on whether the $40K is gross or net).
Do they really believe this crap or is it just so bashed into their heads they dont know what to think. I have a job where I make 20 thousand a year and I work full time. (some of us arent driven in life just by money.) I PAID taxes last year I'm PAYING taxes this year. I struggle to pay my rent and keep the lights on in my house and feed myself without going into debt. If someone who makes less than me payes no taxes....I say right on. It's hard enough supporting just myself on what I make. I don't know what I would do If I made less or had a child who depended on me. If you'r well off and have EVERYTHING YOU NEED and you are bitching because it's harder to get EVERYTHING YOU WANT then you'r parents obviously diden't raise you correctly.
I'm in a similar situation, except with two kids.
I actually blame Democrats for not making the arguments that need to be made against these right wing punks. Dems are either too effing sissy or too similar in thinking to question the values of conservatives who have been in bed with the corporatists for decades, I'm thoroughly angry at Democrats who continue to practice the same old losing strategy of policy speak fundamentalism and will not pay attention to the work of the cognitive scientists, like Drew Westen and George Lakoff. These guys aren't just making crap up, they know how the mind works and they know how to make policy rationale explicit through the language of values.
Screw it. Until we liberals figure out how to beat these rightwing, authoritarian thugs with our principles and values, we deserve to be eternal losers to the extremists on the right.
Happy fascism everyone.
Neocons believe in NOBLESSE OBLIGE without the OBLIGE - the WORST OF BOTH WORLDS.