Not all liberals were impressed with the dress that far-left Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wore to the Met Gala emblazoned on the back with the words “Tax the Rich.” That this was an event for the rich and famous made the dress even more ridiculous.
AOC would be viewed as rich by the majority of Americans since her congressional salary is $174,000. Some prominent liberals in the entertainment world who make much more than that were not impressed with AOC’s slogan.
Said Whoopi Goldberg on “The View”:
You know what freaked me out about this? I’ve been trying to figure out — because they say the 1% — you know how much the top 1% is considered? People who make about $421,000 a year make you part of the 1%!
For me this is outrageous. You know because, listen, in America you’re supposed to be able to come and turn yourself into everything, you know?
The problem for me with all this is people don’t know what you’re putting in if you’re making $500,000. If you’re raising grandkids or taking care of parents and all kind of stuff, then you want to take more money.
Comedian Bill Maher was even more critical. He challenged the assertion that “the rich” don’t pay enough taxes, and noted that the richest 65,000 New Yorkers pay more than half of all the taxes in New York City. “It’s not like we don’t tax the rich at all,” Maher said. “I’m all for ending income inequality, but let’s not lie. The rich pay a lot of the taxes.” He added: “I’m just saying, you wear ‘tax the rich’ on your ass, and people are always saying the rich don’t pay taxes. They pay some taxes! They pay a big part of the freight already. I’m not saying it shouldn’t be more perhaps, but let’s not lie.”
According to the latest figures released by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), as reported by the Tax Foundation:
In 2018, the bottom 50 percent of taxpayers (those with AGI below $43,614) earned 11.6 percent of total AGI. This group of taxpayers paid $45.1 billion in taxes, or roughly 3 percent of all federal individual income taxes in 2018.
In contrast, the top 1 percent of all taxpayers (taxpayers with AGI of $540,009 and above) earned 20.9 percent of all AGI in 2018 and paid 40.1 percent of all federal income taxes.
In 2018, the top 1 percent of taxpayers accounted for more income taxes paid than the bottom 90 percent combined. The top 1 percent of taxpayers paid roughly $615 billion, or 40.1 percent of all income taxes, while the bottom 90 percent paid about $440 billion, or 28.6 percent of all income taxes.
“The rich” are also punished through the phase-out of tax exemptions, deductions, and credits as their income rises. And not only do “the poor” pay little or no income taxes, they receive tax refunds of money they never paid in, in the form of refundable tax credits like the Earned Income Tax Credit.
And yet, to fund President Biden’s $3.5 trillion social spending plan, Democrats want to raise taxes by $2.1 trillion over the next ten years by increasing the top personal income tax rate to 39.6 percent (currently 37 percent), add a 3 percent surtax to incomes over $5 million, raise the capital gains tax rate to 25 percent (currently 20 percent), as well as raise the corporate tax rate and taxes on business foreign operations.
“The rich” don’t need to pay their “fair share,” they are already paying the greatest share. Instead of asking whether “the rich” are paying their fair share, perhaps we should be asking whether “the poor” are paying their fair share.
