The Poor Don't Pay Taxes………My Ass!

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Yeah, right, only the rich pay all the taxes

The latest right wing meme is that 47% of the population pay no taxes.

Of course, it's not true, though it is true that that number owe no federal income tax, but the do owe significant amounts of Social Security, Medicare, and state and local taxes.

As this handy, dandy chart shows, it's simply not true, and my guess would be that if this were broken up into deciles, as opposed to quintiles, that the top 10% would pay even less, since they are above the social security cutoff, and get far more of their income in capital gains and dividends.

Warren Buffet once noted that his receptionist paid a greater percentage of her wages in taxes than he did, and that still holds true.