April 19, 2016

Yesterday was the dreaded Tax Day for many Americans, especially higher-earners.

If you have enough income that you have to pay the IRS, it makes sense to pay on the due date. And taxes for the rich can take time: tax returns get really complicated if you have a multitude of earnings and complex deductions usually designed to offset high taxes. But those in the poverty bracket often have their taxes finished before January even comes to a close. People at lower income levels depend on their tax refund for things like car repair and dental work, and that refund can't come soon enough to supplement the poverty wages many live on.

During IRS Day-discussions on The FIve, both Bolling and Dana Perino sought to evoke fear and loathing in their viewer's hearts by explaining that there are far too many Americans not paying tax at all. Of course, the why is not mentioned: these 'moochers' simply earn far too little and are trying to subsist at below poverty income. The graphic below was shown emphasizing their point that the percentage of non-taxed Americans is at 45.3%. Bolling took over and made it sound as if these people are living the high life.

45_no_federal
Credit: screen capture

BOLLING: (regarding those higher earners) They tax you literally from birth to death. Meanwhile, If you're on the take on the other side of it, the 45%, you're likely getting unemployment insurance, you're likely getting healthcare, free healthcare, you're probably getting food stamps, you're probably getting a phone, you'll be getting the internet, you're getting help with your heating and electric bills, and what not. So we're very close to the tipping point where when that goes to 51% of people who are not paying anything, you're never going to change the system.

After that soliloquy, he got in a mandatory dig on Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton over how much more free stuff can they possibly give these 'other people.' The viewer is convinced that they are subsidizing the welfare queens now, more than ever.

What Bolling and Perino never say is how much more, by percentage, these folks are earning who are perfectly able to pay tax at a higher rate. They could have looked for less than five seconds and found a chart such as this one. If you look at anything above 70%, it is exponentially more than every income below it.

networth
Look above the highlighted yellow line for clues, Eric. Credit: DQYDJ.net

Trying to make his next point of outrage, Bolling tells us that President Obama only paid 17% of his income in taxes because he's a 'mass user of the loopholes.' Meanwhile, poor Eric paid 32%, likely because he earned an unfathomable amount (roughly 20X the salary of a U.S. President) working at GOP-TV, so much so that we'd be better off not knowing what they pay this schmuck to fearmonger about poor people. It's not good for the reader's blood pressure to imagine such inequality.

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