Bartlett: Teabaggers Totally Ignorant About Taxes

[FourScore]

Bartlett: Teabaggers Totally Ignorant About Taxes
by Pinecone
Sat Mar 27, 2010 at 05:40:10 AM PDT

The byline date on this is a week old, but it was just forwarded to my by my son. Last week Bruce Bartlett, longtime conservative Republican, wrote an article in Forbes http://www.forbes.com/2010/03/18/tea-party-ignorant-taxes-opinions-columnists-bruce-bartlett.html wherein he reviewed the beliefs (certainly can't call it knowledge) that Teabaggers have about Federal Taxes. The astounding results (and correct answers) below...

SNIP

...Questions #1: "How much does the Government get in taxes as a percentage of GDP?

Teabagger Answer #1: (Caveat - first you have to assume they know what a percentage is, and then you have to assume they know - even vaguely - what GDP stands for and is) ..... drum roll ... average of 42%, and median of 40%

Reality Answer #1:

Max in history (WWII) was around 20%. Right now, ALL Federal Taxes(including personal, corp, payroll, etc.) = 14.8%

Question #2: How much does a typical family making $50,000 pay in federal income taxes?

Teabagger Answer #2: (Again, this is a bit tricky - is that w-2 50K, gross income 50K? Is it taxable 50K? - so room for some multiple correct answers.) Their average response was $12,700, and median response was $10,000 (just as an aside, I wonder how many could explain the difference between average and median, and then give a mathematical example of how the two numbers could be different?)

Reality Answer#2:

OK - several ways to slice this. According to IRS tax tables, a single person with $50,000 in taxable income last year would owe $8,694 in federal income taxes, and a married couple filing jointly would owe $6,669...

SNIP

...Question #3: Have personal taxes gone up or down under President Obama?

Teabagger Answer #3: No brainer - two thirds thought they had gone up.

Reality Answer #3: To quote Bartlett:

As noted earlier, federal taxes are very considerably lower by every measure since Obama became president. And given the economic circumstances, it's hard to imagine that a tax increase would have been enacted last year. In fact, 40% of Obama's stimulus package involved tax cuts. These include the Making Work Pay Credit, which reduces federal taxes for all taxpayers with incomes below $75,000 by between $400 and $800...

SNIP

...Bartlett (being an economist) then spends a number of paragraphs exploring why all these misconceptions might be out there, and even references an economic theory or two. But in the end, this is what he concludes with.

Whatever the future of the Tea Party movement in American politics, it's a bad idea for so many participants to operate on the basis of false notions about the burden of federal taxation. It only takes a little bit of time to look at one's tax return to see what one is actually paying the Treasury, calculate the percentage of one's income that goes to taxes, and compare it with what was paid last year and the year before. People may then discover that their anger is misplaced and channel it into areas where it is more likely to bring about positive change...

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/3/27/851416/-Bartlett:-Teabaggers-Totally-Ignorant-About-Taxes

[Ozymanithrax]

1. Just drop "about taxes" and you will be 100% accurate.

[Lebam in LA]

2. LOL

:applause: :toast:

[malaise]

3. +1,000

LOL :D

[hfojvt]

4. I don't like the first two, at least part of them

question 1 says "the Government" not "the Federal Government" and thus one could conclude that State and local governments are also part of "the Government". In 2000, I am finding that all taxes were about 30% of GDP.

The second answer should not have gone from "taxable income". Instead it would be
Single $50,000 - 5450 - 3500 = 41,050 = $6,456 - 400 = $6,056 or less if he/she had some deductions
the real kicker is a family of four
$50,000 - 10,900 - 14000 = 25,100 = $2,934 - 2000 - 800 = $134 or less if they had some deductions (a mere $1,000 into an IRA will make the tax bill negative $15)

but Bartlett does go on at the link.