Tax the Rich

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/

Wealthy Americans earn about 50 percent of all income but pay nearly 70 percent of the federal tax burden, according to the latest analysis Tuesday by the Congressional Budget Office — though the agency said the very richest have seen their share of taxes fall the last few years.

CBO looked at 2007 through 2009 and found the bottom 20 percent of American earners paid just three-tenths of a percent of the total tax burden, while the richest 20 percent paid 67.9 percent of taxes.

The top 1 percent, who President Obama has made a target during the presidential campaign, earns 13.4 percent of all pre-tax income, but paid 22.3 percent of taxes in 2009, CBO said. ...

“Specifically, between 2007 and 2009, the share of taxes paid fell for the bottom three income quintiles, was close to flat for the fourth quintile, but rose for the highest quintile,” CBO said. “Within the top quintile, however, the shift was uneven; the share paid by the top percentile fell, and the share paid by the rest of the top quintile rose.” (http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jul/10/cbo-rich-pay-outsized-share-taxes/)

I am not in the top 1% (or top 20%), but if you worked hard to get there maybe you should be able to enjoy your wealth.  I am not very ambitious and did not work hard enough to make the big bucks, but I am not particularly jealous of those that did.  Some of the wealth is inherited (Kennedy's) or married (Kerry) but much of it is earned through hard work and long hours.

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For a long time recently we wished the temperature would go below 80F, then it actually (Alleluia!) went below 70 and this morning it actually made it to below 60F!  These are temperatures I am better able to cope with!