Fairness is in the Eye of the Beholder Vice President Biden
Curtis Dubay /
In a recent interview with Yahoo Finance, Vice President Joe Biden said the following:
“the top 1 percent of earners get 22 percent of all income made in the U.S. Taxes have been lowered for the wealthy considerably over the years. It’s about time we get a little tax equity here.”
Putting aside the fact that the Vice President thinks top-earners “get” their income instead of earning it through hard work, innovation and business acumen, he is right that the top one percent of taxpayers earn 22 percent of all income. But what he fails to mention is that they also pay more than 40 percent of all income taxes. By most people’s standards that is more than enough “equity”.
In fact, the top one percent of taxpayers pay more taxes than the bottom 95 percent of taxpayers combined. And the bottom 50 percent of taxpayers pay less than 3 percent of all taxes. If current trends continue, the bottom 50 percent will soon pay no income taxes at all.