Rush Limbaugh's tax cut argument fully debunked - in detail

[moderateindependent]

Rush Limbaugh is so excited about the dishonest, inaccurate arguments he is running on his webiste in support of President Bush's tax cuts for the rich that he says he will leave the chart and article on his site "forever." He is sure it shows even the dumbest liberal that the Republicans are right - that tax cuts for the rich are fair and necessary. Only two problems: 1) of course, he uses misleading numbers and twists stats and facts, 2) even the numbers he uses show exactly the opposite of what he says if you look at them properly.

So we had our Media Watch writer, Betsy R. Vasquez do an indepth debunking of his - and the Republicans - tax cut arguments, tearing apart their nonsense and giving you hard core facts to fight back with.

Here is a clip from it - it is too long to put all on here so to read the whole thing come to http://www.moderateindependent.com/v1i15taxnumbers.htm .

Tom Bico

MEDIA WATCH

Rush Limbaugh Runs Numbers On His Website He Claims Prove Republicans Are Right About Tax Cuts For The Rich, But Even The Numbers He Presents Show How Stupid And Inaccurate His Argument Is

by Besty R. Vasquez

November 25, 2003 – The article on his website starts with the outraged exclamation, "Only The Rich Pay Taxes - Top 50% Of Wage Earners Pay 96.03% Of Taxes." (see http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/menu/top_50__of_wage_earners_pay_96_09__of_income_taxes.guest.html )

Ok, I have to be fair. I've never done Oxycontin, so I'm not sure if it's what made Rush so hyped up with stupidity that he put numbers on his website that flat out disprove the argument he is trying to make.

But I suspect there must be something either in either sucking down Oxycontin or sucking on right-wing bunghole that made the King Of All Bloated People, Rush Limbaugh, declare that these numbers that clearly show he is full of it will, "stay on this website forever," because he is so proud how they make his dishonest case backing up the above headline. In reality, by "forever," he surely means for a while until he realizes how the numbers prove he is asinine and full of it, which I guess will be forever now that I think about it.

So now for the numbers. Look at the chart below for a second, taken directly from Rush's site:

"Think of it this way: less than four dollars out of every $100 paid in income taxes in the United States is paid by someone in the bottom 50% of wage earners. Are the top half millionaires? Noooo, more like "thousandaires." The top 50% were those individuals or couples filing jointly who earned $26,000 and up in 1999. (The top 1% earned $293,000-plus.) Americans who want to are continuing to improve their lives - and those who don't want to, aren't. Here are the wage earners in each category and the percentages they pay:

Top 5% pay 53.25% of all income taxes (Down from 2000 figure: 56.47%). The top 10% pay 64.89% (Down from 2000 figure: 67.33%). The top 25% pay 82.9% (Down from 2000 figure: 84.01%). The top 50% pay 96.03% (Down from 2000 figure: 96.09%). The bottom 50%? They pay a paltry 3.97% of all income taxes. The top 1% is paying more than ten times the federal income taxes than the bottom 50%! And who earns what? The top 1% earns 17.53 (2000: 20.81%) of all income. The top 5% earns 31.99 (2000: 35.30%). The top 10% earns 43.11% (2000: 46.01%); the top 25% earns 65.23% (2000: 67.15%), and the top 50% earns 86.19% (2000: 87.01%) of all the income."

Ok, so there it is. Notice anything? If you are looking at the numbers I am looking at, you will notice a few things.

For starters, look at what percentage of the income 50% of Americans combined earn: 13.81%.

Where is that number on the chart? He didn't put it there directly, but do the math: if the top 50% earned 86.19% of the income, that means that the other half of Americans - not a small group, we are talking half of us combined - earned only 13.81% of all the income in the nation. That is criminal. Half the nation is being made to work as slave laborers to support the other half.

Right, they don't pay much in taxes, but that is because they DON'T EARN ANYTHING. Look again at Rush's numbers. 1 out of 2 American tax filers takes home less than a pathetic $26,000 a year. And no, that is not even per person. Rush says plainly, "The top 50% were those individuals or couples filing jointly who earned $26,000 and up in 1999." That means the bottom 50% of us - including couples filing jointly - made $25,999 or less per household.

Again, this is HALF OF US COMBINED making less than 14% of all the income, half of our households earning less than $26,000 each.

Now let me point out here that to begin with Rush only talks about "wage earners." Yes, for the sake of this analysis, he is not covering corporate taxes or income at all. He's not covering one of the biggest scams the Republicans run, slashing corporate taxes, increasing the burden on individuals. Nope, that's scam number one in his numbers. But let's not start pointing out that his numbers are entirely misleading, as one would expect from him, just yet. Let's just continue to show that even when he was trying to make his distorted, misleading point, the numbers he chose to give show his points to completely inaccurate.

Ok, so using Rush's numbers again, what do the other half of us make? Yes, the other half of the nation makes not 2, not 3 times as much as the rest of us, no not 4, not even 5, but over 6 times as much as the other half of us combined. This is what Rush wants to brag about? One half of the nation is making over 6 times as much as the other half? Right, there is inequity proven here Rush, but not in the tax code, it is in the wage distribution. But wait, we see something even worse if we keep looking at his numbers.

Let's use his 2000 figures just for fun (why he gives 1999 and then 2000 in parenthesis is, I guess, to prove he can be asinine with two consecutive years worth of outdated data, so let's indulge him.)

The top 25% of us made over 2/3 of all the money (67.15% he tells us) - yes, that means 75% of us combined don't earn 1/3 (32.85%) of what the top 25% of us made.

Now let me ask you a question: looking at the sentence above, tell me how much more, on average, does someone in the top 25% earn than one of the other 75% of us?

Careful now, Rush is playing a game to make things seem not so uneven. He is comparing a small group - the top 25% percent - with a group 3 times its size - the other 75%. This is a game the right often uses to make the disparity not seem so bad. If you just look as it is presented, it seems like the people in the top 25% only make 33 percent more than the rest of us: they have 67% of the money, we have 33%, so they only have 33 % more, right? Wrong. Allow me to sound like your fifth grade math teacher for a second: if 1/4 of the people have 2/3 of the money, and 3/4 of the people have only 1/3 of the money, how much more does each person in the top 1/4 have than the rest of the people?

Yes, Rush is counting on you having skipped math class that day. The main difference between Bush/Limbaughians and the rest of us is that we deal with facts and truth, they count on the fact you are too busy, lazy, superficial, or uncaring to look into things or question if they are accurate.

Ok, so let us solve this grade school math equation for you and give you a useful, accurate answer. The real amount the average person in the top 25% of earners makes is over 6 times what the other 75% percent of us make on average. (For those of you who want to refresh your math skills, they have 2 times as much money, multiply by the fact we are 3 times as many people as them - fun, isn't it? Maybe not, but at least you get a useful answer.)

Ok, still just using his numbers, the top 10 percent earn almost half (46.01%) of all the money. Yes, if 9 out of 10 of us put all the money we made in a pot, it would about equal what just this 10% made. But no, don't get confused and think that means the top 10% just earns a little over 2 times as much as the rest of us. That is the small group vs. the larger group illusion again. On a per person basis, the top 10 percent earn almost 8 times as much as the other 90 percent of us. How much more do they earn then the first half of us - the 1 out of 2 of us Rush wrote his article to bag on? The people in this top 10% each make 17 times as much as half of us do - and remember, we are talking per household (including "couples filing jointly.")

Wait, this is just how bad it is using Rush's numbers. The reality is actually even worse - and yes, his complaints about the tax burden falling unfairly on the "top 50%" turns out to be based entirely on bogus numbers as well. (article continued at http://www.moderateindependent.com/v1i15taxnumbers.htm )