Do you think this is true?

[libodem]

local radio investor guy just said that 5% of the people pay 55% of all the taxes in this country and the reason natural gas is up 27% is because the far left won't let us drill in Anwar. I have to go to work, but I'll be back in 9 hours to see if any of you have any ideas. I just don't think the guy is right but if he is I'll eat some humble pie. Thanks

[Rainscents]

1. I don't know the answer, maybe DUer can help you out with number.

[ISUGRADIA]

2. I'm not sure how oil production in ANWAR would impact

natural gas prices.

[Atman]

3. The 5%-55% is a meaningless comparison, even if true.

If the 5% have 95% of the money, then they SHOULD be paying more taxes. The republicans want everyone to buy into their "level playing field" line of crap, but that is like saying a peewee football team with no pads or uniforms can compete against a pro team, because they're both playing the same game. It is utter nonsense, designed to keep the sheeple confused and somehow sympathetic to the poor rich folks who have such a tough time making do because they have to actually PAY into the system.

[rainy]

6. that's income tax and they are getting most of the income

I do know that the poor pay a great percentage of their income on taxes in the form of sales taxes etc.. than the wealthy do.

[Yupster]

24. Correct rainy

The top few percent pay an amazing proportion of the income taxes. Five percent paying 55 % of the total taxes sounds about right. That five percent makes a large percentage of the incme too, but no where near 55 %.

However, that's income taxes.

The middle class and poor pay plnty of taxes when you add in sales taxes, property taxes, phoe, cable tv, and FICA taxes.

[Coexist]

10. also, poorer people spend 100% of their income

paying a higher percentage of Income Tax (comparatively), the wealthy spend a lower percentage of their overall income.

(Edited for clarity - I hope it makes sense).

[mrcheerful]

4. Just RW lies.

Working people pay far more taxes then that 5% and the oil they are talking about won't be ready for use 10 years from the day they start drilling.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

5. anwar is a small oil field, not natural gas bubble.

If we do drill there (against the law, and against the people's will) rather than build a destructive pipeline, it would be best to simply boat it to Japan or China for a profit.

natural gas supplies are more threatened by peaker power plants that also destroy the ground water. He is simply wrong on all points, and worse, he misses the real issue.

Actually the tax issue is quite complex. Percentagewise, the poor and the failing and shrinking middle class pay the highest percentage in tax. Even if the highest 1% of the income earners paid that very same tax rate, we'd find the deficit reduced substantially.

[wakeme2008]

7. They have tons of natural gas

in the North Slope. BUT Alaska is fighting to build a NG pipeline through Alaska that will cost $$$$ and still have to be shipped to the West Coast. There is a much much cheaper plan that would build a small in lenght pipeline to connect up with the Canadian NG system which already supplies the US.

:grr:

[MODemocrat]

8. Everyone pays the same amount of taxes on everything except income

We pay taxes on groceries, gasoline, clothing, utilities, phone bills, automobiles, licenses, repair shop bills, etc. You name it, we pay taxes on it. Of course the richest 5% of people pay more income taxes; it certainly doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that one out. I wish it were possible that my income was so large that I'd have to pay accordingly. That is the biggest bunch of bull they've come up with yet....I absolutely don't buy into that. It is just another spin by the wacky
crazy-wing of the republican party.:think: :think: :boring: :boring: :boring:

[TahitiNut]

9. It's nonsense.

The top 1% collect 19.1% of all (taxable) income and pay 20.8% of all federal, state, and local taxes.
The top 5% collect 33.5% of all (taxable) income and pay 36.1% of all federal, state, and local taxes.


http://www.ctj.org/pdf/fsl2004.pdf

[hughee99]

19. According to the IRS...

The top 5% paid 54.36% of all income taxes in 2003, which is the latest year they have the calculations for.

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/03in05tr.xls

[TahitiNut]

20. What part of "all federal, state, and local taxes" wasn't clear?

The OP says 'all the taxes in this country." What's not clear about that?

The right wing revels in saying "taxes" when the numbers they're cherry-picking are not merely "income taxes" or even merely "federal income taxes" but is actually limited to "federal individual income taxes"!

Let's include federal corporate income taxes.
Let's include state (individual and corporate) income taxes.
Let's include local (individual and corporate) income taxes.
Let's include sales taxes.
Let's include excise taxes.
Let's include property taxes.
Let's include payroll taxes.


Factoid: Over 70% of all taxpayers (and over 80% of all taxpayers with wage income) pay more in federal payroll taxes than they do in federal individual income taxes. That's because we have far too many "working poor"! It's also because people (in the "ownership class") with only unearned income (i.e. income from the labor of others) pay no payroll taxes and pay federal income taxes at less than half the rate of earned income.

[Steve A Play]

11. Did you know that 89.73% of RW 'facts' are made up on the spot?

The rest are merely mis-construed! :)

It's a FACT! I read it on the Internet. :rofl:

Steven P. :kick:

[Pacifist Patriot]

12. Damn! I thought it was 92.64%

[SammyWinstonJack]

14. Internets!

:evilgrin:

[Coexist]

13. Check this link for sane, responsible wealthy people

http://www.responsiblewealth.org/

[file83]

15. NO - it's NOT true. Here's why...

All oil/gas that is drilled out of the ground, no matter where it is found is sold on the World market. So, natural gas that gets pumped into homes here in America could be coming from Texas, Venezuela, Iran, or whereever. If we ruined the ecology up at Anwar just to add a few million barrels of raw oil to the World market (and there are no guarantees we'd even tap a natural gas bubble), it wouldn't lower the gas prices by any significant factor. All it would do would create more profits for American owned oil companies that want to make a short term profit at long term cost to the Alaskan wilderness.

More importantly, the price of gas/oil has less to do with supply and demand, and more to do with how much the International oil syndicate thinks it can get away with.

[EuroObserver]

16. Interesting question, worth researching. Start here:

http://www.aga.org/Template.cfm?Section=AGA_News1&template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=18231

???

[stillcool]

17. I've heard that 5% line before...

and try to keep that 5% in mind....when reading stories like this...

January 11, 2006
Top Dogs Keeping More of the Spoils for Themselves
Top execs are keeping a much bigger portion of the earnings pie for themselves than they were a decade ago according to a recent study by Lucian Bebchuk, a Harvard Law scholar of executive-pay practices, and Cornell's Yaniv Grinstein. From 1999 to 2003, the five top folks at each of the 1,500 largest publicly traded companies cumulatively took home $122 billion in salary, bonus and stock, compared with $68 billion from 1993 through 1997. Between 2001 to 2003, this cane out to 9.8% of the companies' net income, almost double the 5% in 1993 to 1995. As Mel Brooks said, it's good to be the king.
Memo to Activists: Mind CEO Pay

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?guid=%7B5184990D%2D934A%2D42DA%2DA37C%2D6305A7248EA9%7D&symbol=&siteid=mktw
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- For fiscal 2005 the current and former chief executive officers of Walt Disney Co. earned a combined total of $16.9 million in bonuses, according to a regulatory filing.

On Wednesday, Disney (DIS) told the Securities and Exchange Commission that Michael Eisner, who served as chief executive officer until Oct. 1, received a $9.11 million bonus, in addition to a $1 million salary. The company said Robert Iger, Eisner's successor, was paid a $7.74 million bonus, on top of a $1.5 million salary.

http://www.nydailynews.com/business/story/382017p-32436...

Massive bonuses are putting as much as $30 million in the back pockets of the masters of finance - and bringing a payday to luxury retailers.

More than $21.5 billion has been handed to the finance world's deal-makers - the most ever, state Controller Alan Hevesi said yesterday.

"A small handful of CEOs, those at the top investment banks, make in the $30 to $40 million range," said Andrew Roost of consultant Johnson Associates. "Almost all of that is in bonuses."

[havocmom]

18. Anybody have the % of the population that own 80% of the wealth?

There is the REAL story!

[doubleplusgood]

21. the implicit argument is this

They are implying that it is unfair for 5% of the population to pay 55% of the taxes, that it would only be fair if those same 5% pay 5% of the taxes.

In other words, they are saying that everyone in the country should pay exactly the same dollar amount in taxes, regardless of their income !

[spuddonna]

23. Exactly, and Thom Hartmann had an excellent comment on this...

He explained this much better than I probably will, but here goes...

Our income taxes are part of a social contract. We pay our taxes so that we have social services (schools, roads, etc), and a military to protect our 'stuff' (as George Carlin would say). Now, here's a very simple question built on that premise: Do you think people that are rich, that own a mansion with several fine cars, and have a business downtown that includes their warehouses, and investments in corporations through the country should pay as much as Joe Blow with one car and a house does to protect their personal property?

This is the point of a progressive tax rate. It is unfair for the rich NOT to pay a larger percent as they have larger capital interests to protect. (Did I do alright? :) )

[radwriter0555]

22. I sure hope the rich are paying most of the taxes... that would be fair,

really.... since they have so much money.

And there is no oil shortage, so it's good that the Liberal Democrats are preventing the corrupt republican owned oil cos from destroying the pristine Alaska Wilderness for profit.

What's the problem?

[libodem]

25. Thanks to everyone who replied

Very helpful information. I'm bookmarking my own post for future reference. I checked the links as well and put them into 'favorites' so I can reference them quickly. BTW radio investor guy REALLY makes me mad with his love of the Bush taxcuts and how it stimulated the economy so magnificently. And the reason the NG thing came up was some lady called in and complained her gas bill was doubled from one month to the next. He mentioned that it WAS colder but he just had to blame the 'far' left as well.