It seems to me that poor-bashing, from a public opinion stand-point, is always a very good idea. And the implication of the 53 percent thing -- that the problems in this country are mainly moral (that a vast swath of the population loaf rather than work, and could work if they chose) -- resonates in a culture steeped in the traditional work-ethic -- much more so, I think, than left criticisms of income inequality.
On Fri, Oct 14, 2011 at 12:16 PM, c b <cb31450 at gmail.com> wrote:
> CHART OF THE DAY: These Are The 47 Percent
> Brian Beutler | October 14, 2011, 5:45AM
>
>
> http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/10/chart-of-the-day-these-are-the-47-percent.php?ref=fpa
>
>
>
> If the left and the right are proxies in a class war, then they're
> currently fighting to win a battle of public perception. Each side
> wants the public to see them as on the side of the beleaguered many
> against the powerful few.
>
> Democrats are vying for victory by supporting tax increases on
> millionaires and the "Buffett Rule," which posits that all
> millionaires should pay at least the same effective tax rates as the
> middle class. The Occupy Wall Street protesters have turned "We Are
> The 99 Percent" into a rallying cry.
>
> How do you argue against that? By obscuring what the fight's really
> about, and perpetuating the sense that hundreds of millions of people
> are gaming the system. To do this, conservatives and Republican
> elected officials are citing recent data to create the impression that
> a small majority of people in the country pay all the taxes, and
> nearly half (a large minority) pay nothing at all. It's a false
> impression, and when you break down who comprises this now-famous "47
> percent" -- the poor, the disabled, and the elderly -- it makes you
> wonder why anybody thought it was a good idea to pick a public fight
> with them.
>
> What's really going on here is that about 47 percent of households
> paid no federal income tax in 2009. Either they owed nothing, or they
> got as much back from the federal government as they paid -- or more.
>
> This ignores payroll taxes, state and local taxes, gas taxes, excise
> taxes and much more. But to hear conservatives talk about it, you'd
> think these people's entire tax burden was $0.00. In April, Sen. Chuck
> Grassley (R-IA), citing similar data, claimed "According to the Joint
> Committee on Taxation, 49 percent of households are paying 100 percent
> of taxes coming in to the federal government." Notice the absence of
> the key qualifier, "income." And Grassley's far from alone.
>
> As Benjy Sarlin explained at length the Republican answer to this
> problem, remarkably, is that Congress should raise these people's
> taxes.
>
> So who are these people? This chart, courtesy of the Center on Budget
> and Policy Priorities, explains just about everything you need to
> know.
>
>
>
> CHART
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