The wealthiest 1 percent -- a tiny group of people -- pay more than $240 billion per year, nearly one-third of all federal income taxes. If we include the wealthiest 10 percent, the whole group forks over more than $460 billion, roughly two-thirds of all income taxes. And the wealthy are the only group whose tax burden has increased over the past decade.
How about the vaunted poor and middle class? The prosperous middle class -- those who make more than the national median but less than the top 10 percent -- makes 45 percent of the nation's income but pays only a third of its income taxes. And the entire bottom half of the nation's wage-earners pay a measly 4 percent of the total
The facts are clear. Our current system shifts the majority of income taxes away from poor and middle-class voters, preferring to confiscate the wealth and earnings of a small, politically defenseless minority. It is designed to balance the budget on the backs of the rich.
But it gets worse. The rich have not only balanced the budget; they have given our politicians an enormous, multi-trillion-dollar surplus to wallow in. And what do they get in return? They are told, by people like Gephardt, that they aren't paying their fair share and don't deserve a tax cut. No, say the Democrats, tax breaks should go to everyone except the one group that is actually paying most of the bills.
Why doesn't anybody care about this injustice? That brings us to the worst of Gephardt's lies: the idea that the wealthy are not "working people."
The wealthiest 1 percent includes the most productive people in America -- the entrepreneurs and executives who direct the course of the nation's businesses. These people work hard and shoulder enormous responsibilities. They provide the knowledge, the entrepreneurial energy, and the investment capital that drives our economy. Yet they are vilified as idle swindlers by the left -- and the right is too timid to defend them openly.
The president has been pushing for his tax cut on the grounds that it will boost the economy, which is true. But he should also fully embrace the reason he gave during his campaign: cutting taxes for the wealthiest 1 percent is the right thing to do.
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