Hanity explains to 7 year old how 60% of Taxes are paid by top 10%.

[oc2002]

It was a interesting segment on his syndicated radio talk show when he brings on a little 7 year old girl that can barely talk, how her school teacher is talking about in class that the President is fighting the 'libruls' on taxes.

Hanity of course tells her one of his oldest lines to bash those crazy 'libruls'.

"60% of the taxes are paid by the top 10% income bracket"

This one liner is very powerfull, even when it is true, it is the way the statement is framed to make Libruls look silly, to most people listening to his show. Yes, even me.

The statement is an over simplification, on the surface is correct, yet is it fair. A statistic like that does not tell the whole picture.

http://www.ctj.org/pdf/debt0903.pdf

[AllegroRondo]

1. But the top10% bracket makes 90% of the income.

[PATRICK]

2. Explaining anything

comparable to a seven year old is inane. it reminds me of "Shane" when the bullying cattleamn tries to sweet talk the kid into joining up
with his cowboy dream. The father sourly comments "I don't the boy is of age".

Hannity is past his time and will end badly.

Tell it to your cat, Hannity Lector.

[Jose Diablo]

3. Would a 7 year old even understand 10% or 60%

or even what it means?

Besides, the whole thing was not for the 7 year old, but for the idiots listening to the show for propaganda purposes. The 7 years old was only there as a prop.

[trotsky]

4. 60% of the FEDERAL INCOME taxes are paid by the top 10%.

But we pay more than just federal income taxes, don't we Sean, you adorable little Nazi?

Add in sales taxes, state taxes, excise taxes, and don't forget all the fees, and then what do you have?

A tax structure that is surprisngly flat already. No wonder they don't like the current system.

[billbuckhead]

5. That top ten percent USE the government more than us middleclass people

Microsoft would go out business in a month without intellectual property rights enforcement. Rich people have more property to protect.

[trotsky]

6. Yes, exactly!

Say we are invaded by a foreign power and all assets liquidated. Who has the most to lose? Not Joe Sixpack who is living from paycheck to paycheck, that's for sure!

[punpirate]

9. When considering federal taxes...

... the statement is a bald-faced lie. How about federal payroll taxes? Add that into the equation, and the top ten percent aren't paying close to 60% of federal taxes in aggregate.

Since the very wealthy pay an extremely small percentage of their income in payroll taxes, the bulk of the taxes they pay are on income. And, this statement of Insannity's doesn't really hold up when looking at the top 10%'s share of income. As of 2000, the top 10% received 48% of all income. The bottom 90%, 52%. The average tax rate for the top 10% (payroll and income combined) is something like 18%. The average tax rate on the bottom 90% (payroll and income combined) is virtually the same rate. On the basis of share of income, the two groups pay almost the same total amount. In an absolute sense, the bottom 90% pay slightly more in taxes than the top 10%.

More importantly, those figures are prior to the extraordinary tax cuts during Bush the Younger's first administration, which overwhelmingly favored the wealthy.

[Hamlette]

7. top 10% makes 42% of the income

here is a more relevant link for this discussion:

http://www.taxfoundation.org/prtopincometable.html

Rush had on his web site for a long time (it may still be there) the statistic that 50% of income earners pay 96% of the federal income taxes.

I had gone to his site to engage a Rush Limbaugh fan at work in discussion. I intended to read a transcript of one of his programs and shoot holes in it. Didn't have to go that far as the first thing I saw on his site was the 50%/96% stat.

My reaction was "its a lie" so I started digging. I found that the top 50% income earners earn 86% of the income.

That means that half of us share 14% of the income in America.

Of course when you figure in more regressive taxes like gasoline taxes and state income taxes and sales taxes and FICA the 96% of taxes undoubtedly goes down to something closer to 86%.

I was shocked that the top 50% ONLY pay 96% of the federal income taxes.

The moral is, when you know all of the facts, the rights arguments fall like a house of cards. Problem is, you won't hear all the facts from the right. They don't want you to know that half of share only 14% of the income and a much smaller percentage of the wealth.

Of course Hannity chose a 7 year old because if he "explained" it to an adult he might be asked hard questions like "what share of the income does the top 10% make.

[The Backlash Cometh]

8. Is Hannity in the top 10%?

Can you spell S-E-L-F-I-S-H?

Not to mention that there are investment opportunties for people at the top that are not available to the rest of us. OH, and let's not forget the illegal cronyistic access problems that the upper crust partake in at every cocktail party.

[Tighthead Prop]

10. Hanity...hahaha

Sean Hanity acts like a bigger asshole every day, and each time I see him on TV he looks like he's in the middle of next year.

[IrateCitizen]

11. What's this girl's teacher doing talking about this, anyway?

I don't remember getting into concepts like taxation rates in the second or third grade. Furthermore, what is this girl's teacher doing talking about the fight between Bush and "libruls" on this?

[Menshevik]

12. Shouldn't the teacher be teaching...

basic math and vocab...not "How to hate the liberals 101"