With all the talk about class warfare the commentary on the Rasmusen Reports is enlightening. It is also enlightening that when ever the subject is brought up by conservatives, it is made to sound that class warfare is bad. The Koch brothers and their ilk are, and have been actively engaged in class war fare for some time now yet there has been no hue and cry from the conservatives. Why is it that when the less affluent want more it is class war fare and when the wealthy want more it is not?
a Commentary by Froma Harrop
Demands to let taxes rise for Americans topping the income charts have led to charges of “class warfare” by the usual Republican suspects. To move the conversation forward, here are some questions and answers:
Question: Do you believe that only the rich should pay higher taxes?
Answer: Yes. When the economy gets better, people somewhat lower down on the income scale probably should pay something more. But let’s start with the rich.
Q: Is it fair that the top 1 percent pay 38 percent of all taxes?
A: First, let’s correct your number. It applies only to federal income taxes. When you add in payroll taxes, federal excise taxes (gasoline, for example) and various state taxes, the bottom 20 percent paid 12.3 percent of their income in taxes last year and the wealthiest 1 percent paid 7.9 percent. Does that sound fair to you?
With all these taxes in the mix, the top 1 percent paid only 21.5 percent of the total — and do note that they earned 20.3 percent of total personal income.
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