That most Americans do not know or understand that finally the middle class relative tax burden is beginning to go down is a failure of the media.
Sam Stein Posted: April 15, 2010 07:59 AM
On Tuesday, a wave of protesters, upset with overly-burdensome taxation by the federal government, are set to descend on the nation’s capital to express their displeasure.
But does their anger reflect the truth about today’s tax rates?
After all, neutral economists insist that, under the Obama administration, the overwhelming likelihood is that your tax burden has gone down, not up. Even conservative economic analysts acknowledge that there really is no basis for middle- and working-class Americans to believe that they’re suddenly paying more.
"The only tax I think that has been put in place so far is an increase in the federal cigarette tax. I can’t think of another Obama tax that has gone in place so far," said Chris Edwards, Director of Tax Policy Studies at the conservative Cato Institute. "I would say that people are angry because big taxes are coming down the road because of the gigantic deficit built up under Bush and continued under Obama."
And yet, Thursday is expected to bring a range of hotly-charged rhetoric over the damage this ‘tax-and-spend’ president has done to the general public’s bottom line.
A look at the numbers tells a different story. For starters: the non-partisan Center for Budget and Policy Priorities reported on Wednesday that "Middle-income Americans are now paying federal taxes at or near historically low levels." How low? The average family of four right now is paying 4.6 percent of its income in federal income taxes — the second lowest percentage in 50 years.
A report from the White House Council of Economic Advisers, meanwhile, asserts that the president’s economic stimulus package has sent more than $200 billion in tax relief and other benefits to mainly middle- and lower-income families since its passage. CONTINUED
