Responding to Erick Erickson's 'We Are The 53%"
So professional kvetcher Erick Erickson has a new project up called "We are the 53%" that purports to speak on behalf of the 53 percent of Americans who pay federal income tax. As per usual with these sorts of things, Erickson fails to note that while many Americans pay no federal income tax, they do pay payroll taxes, state income taxes, sales taxes, excise taxes... well you get the idea. But for professional propagandists such as Erickson, only federal income taxes count as Real Taxes because... well, who the hell knows at this point? Payroll taxes pay for Social Security and Medicare, which are two of the biggest items in the budget, while federal income taxes pay for the military, which you'd think Erickson would be happy to fund.
But anyway! As is his wont, Erickson has posted his own comical self-pity pic bemoaning the fact that he "works" three "jobs" (presumably as an Internet gasbag at RedState, as a radio gasbag on his talk radio show and a TV gasbag on CNN) and is thus one of the Randian Supermen who is supporting all the unwashed losers protesting Wall Street.
This type of weapons-grade st00pid demands a response, of course. And as someone who does in fact pay federal income taxes I've decided to make myself the de facto spokesperson for the 53 percent Who Hate the .000000001 percent that is Erick Erickson.
Of course, I do not have the final say in all this. I encourage all of my fellow federal income tax payers to post similar messages to Erickson. We can make a collage out of 'em if you want. We could even get out own Tumblr: "We Are the 100 Percent Who Think Erick Erickson is a Tool." Revolution, baby. Revolution.
Please go Galt.
(and go commando while you're at it)
. . . if the rest of us are such undeserving parasites, why doesn't he just go on strike and deprive us of his brilliant intellect. That'll show us.
Great response on that paper. Good job kid.
Eric Erickson is as redundant as his name. When history books are written, he will be nothing but a floating turd in the giant toilet of rightwing Orwellian propaganda.
Wanna see a Teatard imbecile have a hard drive crash? Tell them that payroll taxes, not income taxes, are by far the largest amount of tax dollars the government collects - of which rich rightwing imbeciles like Eric pay little, or nothing of..
If I were a psychopath, I would join the republican party, and get in on the gravy train taking the Teabircher morons to the cleaners.
Dear Mr. Erikson, as a proud member of both the 99% and the 53% I have to ask you this:
Using your criteria that only Federal taxpayers count, what does that make Bank of America?
They paid no Federal Income Tax this year.
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/03/25/2...
With them "gotcha" questions, no fair!
You fail to mention what percentage of the 47% who "don't pay taxes" are multi-millionaires who hide their money offshore in order to "stiff the U.S. government". Funny how you teabaggers always ignore that.
A response to the response:
http://thepoint08.tumblr.com/
fear the bongos. I wonder what childhood trauma that came from?
It always blows my mind that conservatives blame the nation's economic woes on people who don't have any money.
http://www.businessinsider.com/15-charts-abou...
You can't get blood from a stone but conservatives are sure willing to try.
...that is entirely Wall Street's fault for crashing the housing market.
Yes it is and another example of Erick Erickson being a lying piece of shit.
from TBogg:
Actually, you're the 47%
I made this response to the "Not the 99%" one i've seen going viral today: http://ericgriffis.tumblr.com/post/11379599888 please steal it and share if you like. thank you.
Erick Erickson.
Just trying to be one of those "fine Americans" his hero shrub was talking about...
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
Medical practitioner, teacher and business owner. It doesn't mean shit. Erickson needs some serious counseling for his anger issues.
"Someday somebody related to some of these sufferers, these victims, these collaterally damaged souls, may try to kill you. And I have to tell you, I think you’ll have it coming." - Christopher Cooper
See this is the true power of not watching TV. . . The guy could slave away at three jobs in obscurity and no one would give a sh*t.
needs to hear this. It's all that matters. They're in the business of selling market-share and inebriate, gullible, anti-literate consumers. It's like Hondas and Toyotas used to be better than Dodges and Oldsmobiles; but most Americans thought you were crazy to buy weird little foreign cars. It's something like all us 60 million petrified, desperate, pissed-off drunks, who can't afford name brand shit at Big Lots and Dollar General anymore, who have to jiggle shit they don't understand under the hood of their 16 yr old F-150 to take paying neighbors 30 miles to WalMart to look at other benumbed, uninsured, food stamp recipients to feel superior. People living in the Days Inn for three years, looking down at the folks living in the Scottish Inn (still turning tricks and selling meth) after seven years. All the American people want, all they unwittingly aspire to, is to find somebody they can look down at. And salivate when they hear the Red Robin® Gourmet Burgers jingle, till the power goes out.
BTW: We are now the 70.18% http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/10/07/do-...
"Dear Border Patrol: my red hair and pale skin IS my passport, bureaucrats." Joshua S. Treviño
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifam...
They framed the questions in such a "Fox News" fashion and still get an overwhelming majority of people hitting the answer they least want to hear.
Or dropping the durned mouse while pawing for the Salsa con Queso Cheez Whiz with their spicy pork rinds? Or their snuggie clad belly... Think I'm going to stop right there, huh? Now that we're all cross-posting these tidbits asap, I really wonder if it's simply a matter of basic English literacy anymore?
Finally some divisive class warfare the wingnuts can get behind. Run with it douchebags. Somehow telling half of America they're a bunch of lazy whining moochers because they don't make enough to pay federal income tax doesn't sound like a winning strategy.
The Republican mindset has destroyed the middle class enough that the middle class is not really the middle class anymore and no longer make enough money to be able to afford to pay income tax even though they pay many many other taxes. Economists have determined that people under a certain income need every dime they can get to survive which helps contribute to society and the economy. What has Hewlett Packard done to help our society? GE? They have shipped as many jobs as they possibly can to other countries but I digress. Next they will complaining that the unemployed are not working.... Wait, they are already doing that. Erick Erickson is a pig.
You can blame John King from CNN for giving this turd a platform. Would CNN give a platform to a liberal if that liberal called Antonin Scalia or Clarence Thomas a goat fucking child molester?
Nice job, Brad!
Or at least, he gets back at least as much as he receives. This is a society, not a club or an uninhabited desert Island.
I've had my fill of bloviating sociopaths who are so supremely selfish that no other reality exists for themselves beside the self.
Ala Glen Beck. Don't go after them, go after the sponsors who give this jackasses a podium from which to spout their crap.
A very old saying. Don't talk about sex, politics or religion.
If you want to be a reporter, great. If you want to be a commentator, then be prepared for people to go after you.
...is that the 53% are actually a part of the 99% (it's basic math). Most of them are being victimized by the 1% who have used their wealth and power to shape government into their private servants, producing laws and regulations that benefit only the rich.
In other words, 99% of the 53% are just as angry at Wall Street as the protesters in Manhattan and elsewhere.
As for the claim that half of Americans don't pay taxes, people need to know that this is a coordinated attack on the poor and middle classes. Take a look at all of the nearly identical quotes (25 of them) from right-wing politicians and pundits saying the same thing:
Debt Wish XI: The GOP/Tea Party Plan To Tax The Poor
It is a campaign to raise taxes on the poor. That's right, Republicans are now advocating higher taxes - but only on the poor. These people are shameless.
The protesters are representing the 99 % , the fact that half ( ? ) of the 99 % are too ignorant and dumb to defend themselves is bedsides the point .
Insanity , it is what it is , there is no understanding it .
They are planning to tax the poor to death. Why leave them money so they can feed their children when you can take it all.
Reagan great victory is that he moved the tax burden from the rich and the corporations and place it squarely on the backs of the poor and middle class.
It's messaging like this that loses people.
Do you have an actual argument? Do you have a real response?
Can you say it in one sentence?
Then DO IT!!!! Without the name-calling, etc.
Progressives just look weak and mean-spirited when, instead of making a point, they simply attack the messenger.
What's wrong with Erickson's "We are the 53%" concept? Can you articulate it?
sometimes things are so stupid articulation is not a necessary condition for comment.
ex. "did you hear what erickson just said?"
"yeah, that was some stupid shit."
maybe that's a bad example since if brevity is your thing, that's articulated quite well dude.
also, this is a comments section, people make comments. as long as no one is inspiring violence or bigotry you (a commenter) have no right to regulate what they say. if c&l feels like it well they can go all bobby brown if they want to.
chances are if you read this blog everyday you sometimes need to vent a little since you've (not you personally but those 99% people) yet again discovered how you're getting your ass kicked in ways you didn't even know were possible on an almost daily basis. if you didn't need to vent every now and then you are an android from another planet and have nothing to worry about and can stop reading this blog.
it's meaningless
and it tries to push the conservative meme that 40-some% of americans pay no taxes, however inaccurate that is.
it is just erick erickson doing what he does: push his conservative agenda.
to EE's credit though--he is one of the more palatable conservatives on TV.
enough taxes is moot, especially when the 1-2% take in the lions share of our economy.
Falling incomes decrease revenue, asshat.
First they ignore us..then they ridicule us..now they are feeding us chicken crap- sign my petition:
http://www.change.org/petitions/fda-stop-feed...
www.ickenittlepost.com
I will let you know, right after you articulate what is correct about that concept.
CTHULHU 2012 "Why vote for a lesser evil?"
I don't think Erickson's 53% concept is "correct."
But where in the original C&L post is there any reason given for why it's incorrect?
I expect profanity and name-calling in blog comments....
But the original post---the one on the front page of C&L titled "Responding to Erick Erickson's 'We are the 53%'---makes NO POINT other than to call Erickson names.
My point is, if you're going to go through the trouble of making a sign, taking a picture, writing a post and uploading all of it, why not make a simple cogent argument?
You know what's wrong with the 53% concept? I'll tell you: All Americans who have legitimate jobs and who spend money pay taxes---100% of them.
For the "47%," after paying for basic necessities, they don't HAVE any money left to additionally pay Federal taxes. As a percentage of disposable income, they've already paid far more in taxes---sales taxes, local taxes, Social Security, etc.---than anybody in the 53%.
That's why there's deductions: the government doesn't force you to pay federal taxes on income earned to cover the basics.
And as a percentage of gross income, the 47% pay many times more in Social Security taxes than does a millionaire.
...
CTHULHU 2012 "Why vote for a lesser evil?"
We all know that already. Pointing it out to Erickson is a waste of time. We're just toying with him because he's too stupid to understand the truth. In the meantime we converse, share new information, vent, and contribute money, signatures and often our own time away from our beloved C&L. That's what these comment threads do.
"Someday somebody related to some of these sufferers, these victims, these collaterally damaged souls, may try to kill you. And I have to tell you, I think you’ll have it coming." - Christopher Cooper
when I see Republicans consistently creaming progressives with their targeted messaging---which is hugely effective despite not being reality-based.
A website called "The 53%" is a great example of targeted messaging. (As is "The 99%").
Progressives need to pound home the same simple (simplistic?) types of themes that rightwingers do; it's hard for us because we don't see the world so much in black/white, and we acknowledge complexity, and those things get in the way of simple messaging.
But in this day and age, it's a matter of SURVIVAL of our democracy to be better at effective messaging.
They finally got it when (after a NYT op-ed suggestion) they named their legislation "The Jobs Bill." Simple. Framed.
in order to fight it, you've already lost.
CTHULHU 2012 "Why vote for a lesser evil?"
. . . and especially nonsense that's been refuted before -- over and over, again and again -- then one probably should get used to being called an idiot.
If he'd come up with some new shtick, that might warrant a response.
i thought your only job was to blow hot air? what are the other 2 jobs?
if i started commenting regularly on two other blogs i would essentially bee working 3 jobs just like this douche. however, i never thought anyone would pay me for this much less enough to own my own home and have health insurance and then go even further and direct my complaints about how hard it is to poor people.
What an idiot. I cannot stand this guy.
Three jobs, huh, Erick? And you can't sell your home? Oh, boo, hoo, hoo. I read last night something about that......I think you have 2 homes. Have you spent beyond your means, Erick? Boo, hoo, hoo.
With so many people out of work, Erick, why don't you give up one of your three jobs so that someone else with no job might have a chance at one job? Certainly, that job at CNN can pay everything you will ever want or need.
I posted something on his site last night. Have to check if he let it through.....but I doubt it.
Some 80% of Americans think that millionaires should have their taxes increased. Someone should start a site that is called "We are the 80%."
He just may not be able to make money off it/them.
Tell you what, RedHater, I'll give you a dollar for the damn place if you just get off my TV. Deal?
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
Why CNN ever hired this goat f*$#%r child molester (his tweet about Justice Souter when he retired), I will never know.
I can't stand to even look at him.
is the most noble and best possible system ever realized. unless the majority doesn't agree with me, then it's a socialist nightmare created by the masses of lazy greedy pieces of shit that populate my awesome country.
Mr. Erickson,
Like you, I am one of the 57% of Americans who pays federal income taxes, but unlike you, I care about the 43% of Americans who don't make enough to pay federal income taxes. Unlike those unlucky 43% of Americans, I stopped paying FICA taxes on my income in June. Last year it was May, but things are a little tighter this year. That's right, from about June 7th until the end of year, not only do I receive a tax cut, but so does the company I own, because I don't pay FICA taxes for the rest of the year and my company doesn't have to make the matching contribution.
Now, its true, you probably pay more federal income tax than I do, but I bet as a percentage for your overall income its much lower. I bet you have a bevy of tax accountants and lawyers who scour your finances to make sure you pay the smallest amount in federal income taxes as possible. I don't have that luxury. Every penny of my income is reported. No tax dodges or off shore accounts. I also pay for every trip to the doctor or hospital because I can't afford health insurance. That's right, I make enough to get that FICA tax cut, but enough to afford health insurance.
I would love to be able to purchase into Medicare, at cost, right now, but people like you made sure that didn't happen. Instead, I have two choices: I can either pay a private for-profit health insurer a massive amount or I can pay a "penalty" to the federal government because I don't have health insurance. That's yours and your ilk's fault, Mr. Erickson. You and your ilk want to make sure that for-profit insurance companies don't have to compete against Medicare, which is so much more efficient and cost effective.
No, Mr. Erickson, I may be one of the 57% who pay federal income taxes, but I am nothing like you. I have a heart and I care about my fellow man. I am your worst enemy: I am a socialistic-capitalist. I believe in making as much money as I can, but not forgetting about taking care of people who have less than I.
Election 2012: Be Educated! Be Active! Vote!
www.PhoenixJustice.com
.
"Someday somebody related to some of these sufferers, these victims, these collaterally damaged souls, may try to kill you. And I have to tell you, I think you’ll have it coming." - Christopher Cooper
Yep....nice message. Hope you tried to send it to his web site. I didn't see my posting from last night, but that probably means that at least this douchebag read it.
Got banned almost immediately. ;)
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
My wife and I have paid federal taxes taxes for nearly 40 years. But we are the 100% as well!
Since we first bought a piece of candy for ourselves with our dirty little hands we have paid sales taxes. Without a doubt sales taxes are the most regressive. Where we live we pay 8% in sales taxes.
Imagine that for every minimum wage/part time dollar you earned you had to give up 8% of it. You have to. You can't bank it and pay the tax later from the interest earned because you spend every penny just to survive!
The war between the 99% against the 1% is being rewritten by the 1 percenter to make it a class war between the have-nots and the have-lesses.
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
And you're still the loyal stoic footsoldier serving the greater glory of the corporate church, hoping to get through the pearly gates one of these days. Well good for you, never questioning the fundamentals of the system you serve with total fealty. You must be so damn proud of yourself, and so resentful of anyone who does question the system that we all swim (and drown) in. How dare they! Bunch of weak-kneed spineless girly men (and women) if anyone wants to know what you think. You're on the side of all that's right and perfect, aren't you? Poor long-suffering Eric. You not only are humble and obedient to your corporate masters, you are also a legend in your own mind.
And by the way, there are plenty of people who work three jobs and still can't make it. Should we make them pay more taxes? Will that give them the right stuff which you apparently have in abundance? Would you like some cheese with your whine?
"You may ask yourself, where is that large automobile"
among other things, because the house slaves were deluded into thinking they were lording over the field slaves.
Erick Erickson kindly provided an example of this.
CTHULHU 2012 "Why vote for a lesser evil?"
He should get a real job to see what its really like, he quit an easy job, like his hero palin. So much time being schooled in dubai can he be trusted to have americas best intrest.
What a tool. This guy acts like he has 3 jobs to survive. He has 3 jobs because he CAN so he can make even more money and advance his career. I guess Beck was working several jobs too with his TV and radio shows. Poor Glenn.
What's Erickson's house worth? What are his assets?
Cry me a river Mr. Elitist.
I don't believe in God. Teach a man to be a good citizen and you have solved the problem of life.
-Andrew Carnegie
Oh right, three jobs. Let's see, commentator on CNN, editing RedState, that's two. Truly backbreaking labors you endure there...
He may even charge his kids for it.
CTHULHU 2012 "Why vote for a lesser evil?"
I'm not sure he even knows how to work.
He has three jobs shilling for the 1%.
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
much as someone who actually works for a living.
why can't you sell your house?
was it because wall street screwed everyone over?
if they don't deserve blame then it must be because you stupidly bought more house than you could afford, but you seem to be asking for sympathy and stupid people don't deserve sympathy right?
i love of it when you don't have to make an argument since the loud mouth douche does it for you.
I'd have told him. "For crying out loud, change your cat box! And take the dog outside once in a while! The smell is going to stick to this place forever, and nobody's going to want to buy it when there are a dozen nicer houses than this, with lower asking prices, within three blocks."
Erickson is part of the 15 to 20% "Royal Loyalist" crowd. They're mostly conservative, mostly cowards, and mostly conned into believing that they too can become one of the "Royals" if they only tow the line. Think David Brooks or Smiling Bill Kristol.
that should read "toe the line"
Boo Hoo- I'll cry a river for him-it's such a sad sorry. Erick, you make more money than most people so quit bellyaching and act human.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DksSPZTZES0&ob...
Election 2012: Be Educated! Be Active! Vote!
www.PhoenixJustice.com
So how are they gonna keep the people conned when the people are all out on the street, with no TV Machine or Child Molester Radio to keep them ear-deep in the bullshit? One of the things Wall Street and the complicit media have to rely on is being in front of the folks they wanna keep brainwashed. Once everyone's a prince or a pauper, the paupers are gonna start running into each other and inevitably, conversations are gonna happen......
I've been watching a lot of former right-wingers I see at work slowly morph into sympathetic socialists over what's been happening to their kids and grand kids...and themselves, frequently. Dialog is a dangerous thing to the 1% and their boot-lickers. More's gonna happen as a result of all this "austerity" santorum.
FB
FB
99%
This was meant for the Willful Deafness post. *eyeroll*
FB
99%
just over 20% of all government revenue when considering federal, state and local governments. See this column at Daily Kos: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/04/18/9681....
A study by NBER showed that the overall tax system, all levels, and over a lifetime, is essentially FLAT: http://people.bu.edu/kotlikof/Does%20It%20Pay...
This latter study is the only one that addresses/resolves the issue of incomes that vary over the household's (or individual's) working lifetime, and that also include federal state and local.
Any move to make federal income taxes any flatter than they already are, or to add taxes to those down the income scale, would essentially move our system into regressive territory.
Thank you for posting the links. Every time I hear this angry-white-male-turned-teabagger bullshit about people not paying taxes, I want to scream "They're not paying federal taxes RIGHT NOW you asshole, but that doesn't mean shit 10 or 20 years from now".
Demographics is the real pisser in this fight, because many of the same teabagger assholes whining about their taxes now didn't pay shit when they had kids in school and a mortgage.
The good news is this bullshit message of theirs only has traction with a tiny fraction of voters, because once people who go to work every day realize that the whackjob teatards are accusing them of being spongers, they are going to give the teabaggers and the republicons the big F.U.
Erickson? Yeah, I remember him...he's the guy who mentioned that he would
pull out his wife's shotgun when the census worker came to call...to "scare that
little ACS twerp."
Sir, I suggest you practice some self-fornication.
And while you're at it, quit whining.
I have a job and I pay taxes, but I also pay attention...
I pay attention to the millions of people without jobs in our country who would much rather work. And yes, they would rather work than protest.
I pay attention to the millions of recent college graduates who have found that the jobs that are available are insufficient to pay off their college loan debt.
I pay attention to the millions of people who don't just "whine" about expensive healthcare, they actively try to advocate for a system that would be better for all of us; I also pay attention to all the people who are trying so hard to stop them.
I pay attention to the shrinking middle class, and how our wages have stagnated or decayed for the past thirty years; and I pay attention to the 1% who have gained wealth at an unprecedented rate over the same period.
I pay attention to bullsh*t statistics that highlight ONLY federal income taxes and ignore all the other taxes because we don't get to pick and choose which taxes we pay, so we shouldn't get to pick and choose which taxes we talk about when we point fingers.
And I pay attention when people in white tee-shirts claim to work three jobs, but are actually overpaid opinion writers and pundits who have never worked an honest day in their lives, and basically live high-on-the-hog by sitting in front of their home computers complaining all day.
And I pay attention when people in mansions complain that they can't SELL their house when most of the rest of us worry about being able to PAY for ours; thanks entirely to a over-heated housing market and predatory lending that none of us -- NONE OF US IN THE 99% -- created or benefitted from.
Beware of anyone promising a future full of yesterdays.
.
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
The newly-minted 54% believe they're different from the 99%, when the evidence is that they are part of the 99%.
Eric's scratching is a perfect example of why Teatards exist. They exist because they're too stupid to understand that they're being played by billionaires and millionaires who own a considerable amount of the assets in the nation.
The so-called 54% believe trickle down is going to save their butts. Meanwhile, they sit back and let those billionaires and millionaires rake them over the tax coals, er, I mean the tax code, even more.
I find it amusing. These new 54%ers are once again mindlessly following a blogger or a radio pundit, and being led even more into disaster.
This is why being uneducated in the US is a shame. Eric is one of the reasons why the protesters aren't going away. I hope more people like Eric start showing their little mugs on blog posts so we can laugh at them even more.
Also very important to note - payments into SS cap at 106,800 - after that, income is completely exempt. I pay 10.6% of my income toward SS. Because of this "cap" an income earner making $250,000 will pay only 4.5% of income toward SS yet draw the exact same benefit as me at retirement. Hmmm.....
I could choose not to blame Hitler for the Holocaust, but that doesn't mean he wasn't responsible for it.
If I were a Nazi, I would have incentive not to blame Hitler. What's your incentive?
By the way, why do you suppose your insurance costs are "outrageous?" Who are you not going to blame for that? My guess would be those that buy advertisement from your fake news job.
"When you're president -- as opposed the head of a private equity firm -- your job is not simply to maximize profits. Your job is to figure out how everybody in the country has a fair shot." - President Barack Obama
I just happen to belong to the subgroup whose income taxe rate is twice that of millionaires and billionaires.
"When you're president -- as opposed the head of a private equity firm -- your job is not simply to maximize profits. Your job is to figure out how everybody in the country has a fair shot." - President Barack Obama
One of my favourites was the lady who talked about getting a scholarship to go to college and then saying she doesn't owe anyone anything...
She got a scholarship. We paid her damn tuition!
There is something very fishy about this site. Check out this guy:
http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lsxm7fmvCI1...
He claims to be 16, and his daddy's a priest. Does this seem strange to anyone else. How many of these people pictured do you thing are genuine?
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