In previous posts I've explained how the Republicons defeated the Public Option and made fools out of all of us during the healthcare reform debate by falsely accusing the Dems of precisely what they themselves were guilty of.
I've described their Master Scam: the "Starve The Beast" strategy.
In the following posts I will give some recent examples of Republiconsevative Double Talk before I expose the horseshit that comprises the narrative they've been using since George W Bush put the finishing touches on the Starve the Beast plan.
That narrative goes like this:
Wasteful, out of control government spending on entitlement programs is the cause of the current fiscal crisis.
No political issue provokes more Republicon sleight-of-speak than the topic of taxes; who pays them, who doesn't and how much those who do pay taxes, actually pay.
If you're a right-wing talk show host you and your conservative guests can routinely get away with saying things like "the top 1% pay 50% of all the taxes in this country!" or "the top 10% pay 90% of all taxes!" or "50% of Americans pay no taxes whatsoever!"
That's because those hosts and their guests are not held to any standard "whatsoever."
Serious economists, though, are usually held to a very high standard. Saying something completely false, like the statements above, would seriously harm that person's reputation and credibility.
But if you're a real actual practicing economist with real actual degrees who actually publishes papers, and actually helped to make policy in previous administrations -- you can come really, really close to saying stuff like that... if you're being interviewed by an obliging host on the Fox Business News channel.
I transcribed this from an April 3rd show I recorded:
Diana Furchtgott-Roth, economist and senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, when asked about Obama's "Buffet Rule" which would make sure that millionaires pay at least 30% (the same rate that people earning much less pay) on taxable income over one million dollars:
"The top 1% of income earners already pay 38% of all taxes.
The top 10% pay 70% of all taxes.
The top half of all income earners pay 98% of all taxes."
The Fox host responds:
"So..."
It is only at this point that Furchgott-Roth adds:
"This is federal income tax."
The host continues:
"...so we should focus more on spending than income and taxes."
Notice how the host was perfectly willing to let that blatantly false statement stand.
And even though Furchgott did add the "oh, by the way" at the very end, she said:
"the top % pay all the taxes" three fucking times before that.
What percentage of Fox viewers do you think registered the fact that she was only talking about federal income taxes?
I'll bet you it's the same as the percentage of Americans who pay "no taxes whatsoever."
Oh, by the way, practically all Americans pay taxes.
So that would mean practically no Fox viewers would have registered that fact.
I say that because practically all the Fox hosts, like Sean Hannity, constantly repeat that "50% don't pay any tax" bullshit, ad nauseam, in order to get their audience really angry, causing the objective part of their brain to shut down so that they will be willing to believe whatever those hosts want them to believe.
So... by the time Furchgott got to her "by the way," the steam emanating from the audience's ears effectively blocked their hearing.
Also notice that Furchgott seemed to be saying that because some millionaires pay an average top effective tax rate of almost 30%, it's perfectly fine for others to be paying much less or nothing at all.
So... it's OK for millionaires to freeload but not those mooching poor and lower middle class (who are sometimes actually paying a higher % than those millionaire freeloaders)
And neither the host nor Furchgott wanted to give their audience a clearer, more "fair and balanced" explanation of who does and doesn't pay taxes and how much is actually paid. That's because if they did they would be forced to tell you that individual federal income taxes make up only 42% of all taxes paid to the federal government. And that doesn't consider state and local taxes, which are regressive.
They would also be forced to tell you (like they should have in the first place) that not only do practically all Americans pay taxes, but that when the total of all taxes actually paid across all income quintiles is taken into account, all quintiles pay close to the same percentage of their income in taxes.
Bet you never heard that on Fox News. And if you did, I bet it didn't register.
I'll show you the proof in an upcoming post.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment