Redefining Truth

From Redefining 'Wealthy' by Jim McTague:

WHO WILL BAIL OUT THE TAXPAYERS WHO are paying for all those bailout buckets? Contrary to fables told to gullible voters and journos by President Barack Obama and other Democrats, the rich didn't enjoy a virtual tax holiday under George W. Bush. To the contrary, the share of the tax burden paid by households in the top 20% of U.S. income distribution -- those with average pretax incomes of $248,400 -- increased significantly between 2000, Bill Clinton's last year as president, and 2006, the latest year for which reliable data is available. You will find this in an April report of the relatively neutral Congressional Budget Office. It was brought to our attention by Curtis Dubay of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.

The Obama administration is preparing to tax the upper-crusties even more, justifying it as a form of retribution for the big breaks they allegedly received from Bush at the expense of middle-class and poorer folks. Dubay's analysis of the CBO data finds that the top 20% of households in fact paid a record-high 86.3% of all taxes in 2006, versus 81.2% under Clinton.

If Democrats increase the tax burden, they risk killing the golden geese.

Is that so? I wonder how many of you who are willing to believe these numbers, also believed Bernie Madoff’s numbers at one time?

Dubay contends that shifting more of the tax burden onto high-income earners is dangerous. Those who pay little or no taxes don't feel the pain of the high cost of big government, and so they are more inclined than taxpayers to clamor for more public services. This demand for a nanny state in turn drains more money from the top 20%; it is impossible for government to go on funding itself this way indefinitely.

Those who pay little or no taxes feel the pain of having no job, nothing to eat, and nowhere to live. If the top 20% would stop hogging all the money and pay workers a decent wage, then maybe the bottom 20% would have more money to contribute to the tax base. As opposed to, like, you know, nothing.

Also, who has been on the receiving end of the bailout money? The top 20 per-centers or the bottom 20 per-centers?