Another liberal lie about taxes

[The Duke]

John Kerry has taken to saying that under Bush, the poor have seen their share of the tax burden rise.  This leaves the impression that the poor pay more in taxes than they did before Bush.  This is, of course, a lie.  No person had their federal taxes raised under Bush, but because of the AMT and the payroll tax, the lower end of the spectrum pay a higher percetnage of the tax revenue the federal government takes in.  When we look at the shifting of the income tax burden under Bush, the Kerry lie is even more obvious.  A recent study showed that the rich pay a higher share of the income tax burden than they did in 2000.

[raggage]

Link to this 'recent study' please?

[Nym90]

No, the poor do pay less in taxes than they did 4 years ago, but overall they do pay a higher percentage of the total tax burden, that's correct. You might say "So what, their taxes went down, that's all that matters, not the percentage of total taxes that they pay". But it does matter, and here's why.

Overall, the poor do pay less in tax now, true, but the eventual reduction in services that will have to result from the tax cuts on the rich will mostly affect the poor, much more than they will affect the rich. So the poor get a small tax reduction now, but over time they will lose a lot more than they gain. The budget deficit has much more potential to harm the poor than the wealthy because it will be government services that help the poor that will likely be the first to be cut.