Tax the Rich-- Lots of Cash in an Undertaxed Group
New data from the IRS ($$ from Wall Street Journal) indicate how much cash the extremely wealthy are making-- and how little they are paying in taxes compared to middle class families. Progressives need to consistently emphasize this reality and the fact that all the priorities we care about-- health care, transit, jobs, energy independence -- can be funded just by making the very wealthy pay their fair share.
How bad is it? Just the highest-income 400 taxpayers by themselves made $86 billion in income last year-- an average of $213.9 million in income apiece in just a year. And they paid just 18.23% of that in taxes-- far below the 30% they were paying back in 1995. That means that increasing the taxes paid from the over $70 billion in after-tax income of this tiny group could fund a range of priorities just by itself.
