Oh look, right on cue - a "Stick up for the poor rich guy" article.

[HughBeaumont]

:eyes:

Nice to know the wealthy have a convenient paid-for friend in our crack Fourth Estate: The Best Propaganda Money can Buy!

Warning: Debunked Talking Points Ahead:

http://news.yahoo.com/fact-check-rich-taxed-less-secretaries-070642868.html

"Middle-class families shouldn't pay higher taxes than millionaires and billionaires," Obama said Monday. "That's pretty straightforward. It's hard to argue against that."

The data tells a different story. On average, the wealthiest people in America pay a lot more taxes than the middle class or the poor, according to private and government data. They pay at a higher rate, and as a group, they contribute a much larger share of the overall taxes collected by the federal government.

There may be individual millionaires who pay taxes at rates lower than middle-income workers. In 2009, 1,470 households filed tax returns with incomes above $1 million yet paid no federal income tax, according to the Internal Revenue Service. That, however, was less than 1 percent of the nearly 237,000 returns with incomes above $1 million.

snip

Obama's claim hinges on the fact that, for high-income families and individuals, investment income is often taxed at a lower rate than wages. The top tax rate for dividends and capital gains is 15 percent. The top marginal tax rate for wages is 35 percent, though that is reserved for taxable income above $379,150.

With tax rates that high, why do so many people pay at lower rates? Because the tax code is riddled with more than $1 trillion in deductions, exemptions and credits, and they benefit people at every income level, according to data from the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation, Congress' official scorekeeper on revenue issues.

The Tax Policy Center estimates that 46 percent of households, mostly low- and medium-income households, will pay no federal income taxes this year. Most, however, will pay other taxes, including Social Security payroll taxes.

SIIIIIIIIGGGGHH . ... The rich pay what they pay because they HAVE MOST OF THE WEALTH!!! The poor pay what they pay because they don't make enough income TO PAY!!!

Before spreading boilerplate crap from Forbes or The Tax Foundation, maybe you want to gloss over the whole story so you have what's called a "FAIR" article and not one that suits a right-wing "sour grapes" frame. Stop acting like you've poured water on something that's very much true just because it dumps on your fantasy of the Bewsh Tax Cuts being fair.

[JI7]

1. and sales tax which is very regressive

[Selatius]

2. If you implemented a progressive property tax, you could conceivably reduce or eliminate sales tax.

But given that relatively wealthy people tend to be disproportionately represented on city councils, state legislators, and county boards, fat chance of that happening. Nope, raise money by taxing the poorest through sales tax.