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June 21, 2010

Under Bush, Wealthier Wealthy Coughed Up More Taxes

Posted by The MaryHunter at June 21, 2010 3:29 PM

The wealthy are evil, especially if they become more wealthy. At least that's the liberal line. But what if those wealthier folks ended up giving up more of their loot to the government -- from the policies of that dastardly Bush?

After dipping in the early part of the Bush administration, by 2007 the top quintile of earners - the 20 percent who made the most - paid nearly 70 percent of all the taxes that the federal government collected, according to Congressional Budget Office figures. That includes a staggering 86 percent of the income tax being paid by just the top quintile of earners.

Meanwhile, if your earnings were in the lower two quintiles, you too got wealthier -- at the expense of the richies.

By contrast, the bottom 40 percent on average not only pay no income tax, but they siphon money back from the federal government in the form of the Earned Income Tax Credit, a 35-year-old program designed to offset some of what low-income workers pay in Social Security taxes.

News like this should cause all the progressive Bush-haters to rethink their unreasonable dislike for this leader who, through conservative tax policies, helped to finance even more of the "working poor" so they could buy more cell phones, cable TV, and acquire those subprime mortgages.

On the other hand, darker days are coming for the redistributionist economy under Obama, as the end of the Bush tax cuts in the weak economic climate will likely give us a double-dip recession and simultaneously reduce overall wealth and tax revenue.