Efforts to tame America’s ballooning budget deficit could soon confront a daunting reality: Nearly half of all Americans live in a household in which someone receives government benefits, more than at any time in history.
At the same time, the fraction of American households not paying federal income taxes has also grown””to an estimated 45% in 2010, from 39% five years ago, according to the Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan research organization.
A little more than half don’t earn enough to be taxed; the rest take so many credits and deductions they don’t owe anything. Most still get hit with Medicare and Social Security payroll taxes, but 13% of all U.S. households pay neither federal income nor payroll taxes.
“We have a very large share of the American population that is getting checks from the government,” says Keith Hennessey, an economic adviser to President George W. Bush and now a fellow at the conservative Hoover Institution, “and an increasingly smaller portion of the population that’s paying for it.”
Where do they get these numbers? If they are correct, it boggles the mind. Where does this 45% of the population live? I am pretty much on the low end of the middle class scale, and I just wrote a check for quarterly taxes today that was a 4 digit number. I can’t imagine how 45% of the US population are significantly below my tax bracket.
Y’all have read Pournelle’s “The Prince,” the compendium of the Falkenberg’s Legion stories? “Welfare Islands,” citizen vs. taxpayer dichotomy? It’s all there.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prince_(Pournelle)
I make low 40’s annually, but with a family of 6, I’m hitting it big on Child Tax Credit and EIC. I even have my witholding set at nothing, and I still get $2K-3K back when I file. So, I can see the point.
As a single at around the $27 k mark for annual income it comes out pretty much a wash. Taking 0 deductions, I don’t pay or get anything back, but if I had kids, went back to school or earned any type of credit, I’d be getting back more than I paid. My guess is that anyone earning less than $20/hour can pull this off with the right set of housing,children,401k choices, etc. So almost anyone except the manager in retail, restaurants, etc. is part of this group. And since retail/service is the largest portion of the economy, it’s not really that big a surprise. I live in a sales tax free state, but the only way I can see to make taxation fair to all would be a national sales tax or flat taxes, because there are many who don’t contribute anything more than payroll taxes and many who are in effect getting even their social security contributions back in credits.
Actually, they aren’t exactly entitlements. People pay into the system their entire lives, investing in their future. The government takes the money when someone is 25, promising to give it back later.
Likewise, when a business pays into unemployment, it is not meant to sit idle; it is their money, used for a purpose. It allows them to mitigate the pain of terminating employees.
I ve said it before and I ll say it again. Give me back the money I paid into the SS system for 35 years in a lump sum next week in gold adjusted for inflation. Fair is fair.
Uh, yes.
#7….?????
[i]Actually, they aren’t exactly entitlements.[/i]. Correct! The proper term is [b]SIN[/b]……as in generational theft. If you take the cash benefit entitlements you are stealing from your children, their children, and on down the line because those who come after us will pay the creditors who are financing our current lifestyle. And the greatest [b]SIN[/b] is that we cannot stop what we are doing. Because to stop what we are doing would require us to stop the Government monster that is stealing the treasure of our prodigny. And we would have to actually fend for ourselves.
In that light I guess all the tax credits don’t seem so bad….you are only stealing from your peers to finance your lifestyle.
Of course we have no choice on a daily basis, the system is what it is. The real point of spiritual examination comes in November. If you vote for the status quo you are deceiving yourself and you have to live with that knowledge. If repentance is desired then action must preceed absolution.