USANews版 - ZZ: Where Are the 47% of Americans Who Pay No Income Taxes |
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t*********r
发帖数: 45 | 1 Where Are the 47% of Americans Who Pay No Income Taxes?
By David A. Graham
inShare81 Sep 17 2012, 7:17 PM ET 606
Mitt Romney says citizens who don't pay income tax will never vote for him.
But eight of the top 10 states with the highest number of nonpayers are red
states.
Updated, September 18
The political world is in a tizzy over hidden-camera footage of Mitt Romney
at a fundraising event. Here's the money quote -- literally -- from the
Mother Jones scoop:
There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no
matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are
dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe
the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they
are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that'
s an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will
vote for this president no matter what ....These are people who pay no
income tax.
The horserace implications of this statement are what the chattering class
is chattering about. Unfortunately, they're also unknowable at this point.
On the one hand, it's always a bad idea to disparage voters (see: Obama,
Barack and clinging to guns and religion), and the soundbite helps to cement
the idea that Romney is out of touch with the average American -- clearly,
he's not trying to connect with nearly half of them! On the other hand,
Romney is disparaging folks whose votes he's already written off.
So let's set that speculation aside and look at who the people are who
actually pay no income tax. Romney's statements are a little unclear, but it
appears that the 47 percent figure represents all of those who pay no
income tax, rather than the Democratic base. His problem is that those
people are disproportionately in red states -- that is, states that tend to
vote Republican:
nonpayers.banner.taxfound.jpg
One important note about these numbers: This measures only those Americans
who filed for taxes with no liability. Millions more didn't even file; it's
those millions, added to the estimated 52 million here, who combine to make
that 47 percent.
It's important to remember that just because people aren't paying income tax
doesn't mean they're not paying taxes -- they pay federal payroll taxes and
state and local sales taxes, for example. Once those taxes are factored in,
the tax regime is basically flat. And the reason that most income tax
nonpayers don't pay is they simply don't make enough income to qualify to
pay. As one might expect, the map of states with the highest poverty levels
resembles this map fairly closely. Many of them are also seniors, a highly
contested voting bloc. Just more than 10 percent of households pay no income
tax because they're retired. They might also be voters in places like
Florida who are already jumpy about the changes to Medicare and Medicaid
that the Romney-Ryan ticket has proposed -- although they would be mostly
unaffected by those reforms.
So Romney appears to be wrong about these voters. But if calling for a less
progressive taxation system was enough to alienate poor voters in the Deep
South, the Republican Party would have already lost its stronghold there.
Update: My colleague Derek Thompson picks up the baton from me and digs
deeper into the demographics of the so-called 47 percent. One important note
he makes is that it's often the lowest-income people in these red states
who are most likely to vote Democratic -- it's just that the rest of the
population is conservative enough to carry the states into the Republican
column.
In 2008, Obama lost Georgia by 5 percentage points but he won 70% of
voters who earned less than $30,000 -- which is precisely the demo most
likely to owe no federal income tax. Obama lost Mississippi by 14 percentage
points, but picked up 66% of voters who earned less than $30,000. As a
general rule, Republicans win among richer voters -- both in the red states
and the blue.
Read the whole thing. | y*****1
发帖数: 316 | 2 obama winning 98% of blacks, even blacks became more miserable under his 4
year term.
so your point is?
.
red
Romney
【在 t*********r 的大作中提到】
: Where Are the 47% of Americans Who Pay No Income Taxes?
: By David A. Graham
: inShare81 Sep 17 2012, 7:17 PM ET 606
: Mitt Romney says citizens who don't pay income tax will never vote for him.
: But eight of the top 10 states with the highest number of nonpayers are red
: states.
: Updated, September 18
: The political world is in a tizzy over hidden-camera footage of Mitt Romney
: at a fundraising event. Here's the money quote -- literally -- from the
: Mother Jones scoop:
| c******g
发帖数: 1217 | 3 So what, 你得了痔疮，给医生割了，割了的那一段比没割之前还疼，
说明啥？
你们黄茶袋就不长点脑子？
【在 y*****1 的大作中提到】
: obama winning 98% of blacks, even blacks became more miserable under his 4
: year term.
: so your point is?
:
: .
: red
: Romney
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