50%, 51%, 65% - Who Knows what it is, who knows what it is who knows who it is?

[ThomWV]

The week before last infuriated Republicans everywhere (a microphone could be found) were blabbering that 50% of working Americans paid no taxes at all, implying that once again the poor had got over on Government. Last week that number has crept up to 51%. One presumes the Republicans were one percent more outraged. I fully expect that before the month of July is over that they will claim that 60% of workers don't pay any taxes.

This was the what triggered them to say that more had to come from those who had little. I have only one reply to the claim that half or more of us don't pay any taxes: "How screwed up must this country be that half of its people do not earn enough money to owe any taxes? How do people making so little survive? The very reason we have a progressive tax systems is so that people caught up in poverty are not driven farther into it by taxation." Of course the poor aren't the only ones not paying taxes. Just like Exxon and GE, there are high earning individuals who do not pay taxes either. Remember that when we complain that the maximum tax rate on long term capital gains is 15%, so that many of those who live on their investments are taxed far less than those who labor for their coin. We must keep in mind that those folks only get taxed that 15% rate on what is left after they take every write-off good money has been able to bribe into legislation over the last three decades.

When you boil it all down do you know what the basic Republican argument is here? This is so patently absurd that it is hard to understand how they can get the great bewildered class to believe it - here is their argument: It is the poor who are getting rich off the Government. It never occurs to them to wonder, if the poor are getting rich then how come they are still poor?

If one believes that not paying taxes leads to one becoming very wealthy then wouldn't it make sense to look at who is very wealthy and presume that it is they who are the ones not paying taxes?

[Turbineguy]

1. And the number of

people who pay no taxes is increasing. So yes, they should be outraged. Now if they only knew why.....

[The Magistrate]

2. Hear Hear, Sir! Well Said Indeed

[B Calm]

3. Great post. K&R

[sabrina 1]

4. Excellent post.

If one believes that not paying taxes leads to one becoming very wealthy then wouldn't it make sense to look at who is very wealthy and presume that it is they who are the ones not paying taxes?

The contortions they must go through to try to make 2+2=10. Their heads must hurt. Mine hurts trying to follow their logic.

[B Calm]

6. I loved that sentence too. Common sense is not a republican trait,

so I doubt they will ever be able to understand.

Hell they didn't even have the common sense a few days into the Iraq War to come to the realization that Iraq didn't have WMD's. Common sense told me they would have been using them against an invading army. But brain dead republicans chose to believe an even bigger lie that Saddam moved them. He must have been saving them for a rainy day. . .

[Angry Dragon]

5. They only say the words ........ have no facts to back them up

[sabrina 1]

7. Lol, yes, I remember that. I was actually posting on a board

that was dominated by Rightwingers at that time and I remember pointing that out to them after the invasion began. 'Where are the Mushroom Clouds and other WMDs?' It simply didn't register with them. And it also told me that the US knew they didn't have them. Because if they did, then they were going on a suicide mission. But you are right, rightwingers are not the best at sorting out these details. I think they look to see what letter is after the name of the story teller and if it's an 'R', they will believe it!

Wait, maybe we can deprogram them if we started a program where all the speakers were supposedly 'R's and looked like Rush or Bill or Hannity? A stealth Fox News Network, taken over by Liberals, where we could turn them all into liberals!

It would make a good comedy though! :-)

[B Calm]

8. Kicked and Recommended

[deacon]

9. A must kick + r. This should be pinned at the top for a week. n/t