GOP Rhetoric at Odds with Americans' Feelings on Taxes

[highplainsdem]

http://www.nationaljournal.com/2012-presidential-campaign/gop-rhetoric-at-odds-with-americans-feelings-on-taxes-20120115

Americans feel pretty good about their tax bills. You wouldn't know it from all the talk in Washington and on the campaign trail about overhauling the tax code, slashing rates on personal income, or creating a flatter tax system.

They feel so pleased, in fact, that a slight majority of Americans – 52 percent – think they pay the right amount of taxes, according to new data from the Pew Research Center. The number of people who feel that they pay more than their fair share of taxes dropped from 55 percent in 2000 to 38 percent in 2011. It’s a sentiment so popular across party lines that it prompted the Pew Research Center to write: “Very few Republicans, Democrats, or independents cite the amount they themselves pay as their chief complaint.”

Such feel-good data almost sounds like a conspiracy on the part of the Internal Revenue Service to boost its public image. It seems implausible given the annual griping that takes place every April leading up to the deadline to file returns. But, look at the data, and the explanation seems simple. “Right now, taxes are objectively very low. The lowest level since 1950,” says Jon Bakija, a professor of economics at Williams College. Instead of over-taxation, what frustrates many Americans is the complexity of the tax code, as well as the perception that the wealthy get off easy: two themes that have started to dominate the 2012 election cycle.

-snip-

Overwhelmingly, Democrats surveyed by Pew are most irritated by the perception that the wealthy do not pay their fair share of taxes. Seventy-two percent of them cited it as the most irksome quirk of the U.S. tax system, shared by 38 percent of Republicans: a theme that President Obama seems to be capitalizing on as income inequality becomes one of the major themes of his re-election strategy.

-snip-

Emphasis added.

[otohara]

1. Fuck "The Perception"

it's the fucking truth - The wealthy will do what ever it takes to avoid paying taxes - including big-time lying, like my Democratic Governor.

Irksome???

Infuriating, more like it!