- 61 percent of them work but don’t earn enough to owe income tax.
- 17 percent are students (who will pay plenty of taxes once they’re out of school), military families, people with disabilities and people who have lost their jobs—including victims of outsourcers like, well, Mitt Romney.
- 22 percent are elderly.
(Data source: www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3505#_ftn9.)
The fact that they’re not paid enough or are active duty military or are too old or disabled—maybe suffering from black lung or other diseases acquired on the job—does not mean they don’t contribute to America’s tax revenues. In fact, the poorest one-fifth of U.S. households pay a grinding 17.4 percent of their income in various federal, state and local taxes.
In case you’ve been visiting another planet and missed perhaps the most disgusting screed by a candidate for the presidency—ever—here it is:
“There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that’s an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what….These are people who pay no income tax. […] [M]y job is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”
Watch the video on Mitt Romney’s remarks on the 47 percent.
By the way, Mitt, it’s actually 46 percent, and people in southern red states—you know, where those “right to work” for less laws you like keep wages low—are disproportionately likely to pay no income taxes.
Also, many major corporations that are sitting on trillions of dollars in cash are paying little to no federal taxes.
