This gives G-man's pie charts some perspective...

http://www.moderateindependent.com/v1i15taxnumbers.htm
Quote:

...Ok, so there it is.  Notice anything?  If you are looking at the numbers I am looking at, you will notice a few things.

For starters, look at what percentage of the income 50% of Americans combined earn:  13.81%. 

Where is that number on the chart?  He didn't put it there directly, but do the math:  if the top 50% earned 86.19% of the income, that means that the other half of Americans - not a small group, we are talking half of us combined - earned only 13.81% of all the income in the nation.  That is criminal.  Half the nation is being made to work as slave laborers to support the other half.

Right, they don't pay much in taxes, but that is because they DON'T EARN ANYTHING.  Look again at Rush's numbers.  1 out of 2 American tax filers takes home less than a pathetic $26,000 a year.  And no, that is not even per person.  Rush says plainly, "The top 50% were those individuals or couples  filing jointly who earned $26,000 and up in 1999."  That means the bottom 50% of us - including couples filing jointly - made $25,999 or less per household.

Again, this is HALF OF US COMBINED making less than 14% of all the income, half of our households earning less than $26,000 each.

Now let me point out here that to begin with Rush only talks about "wage earners."  Yes, for the sake of this analysis, he is not covering corporate taxes or income at all.  He's not covering one of the biggest scams the Republicans run, slashing corporate taxes, increasing the burden on individuals.  Nope, that's scam number one in his numbers.  But let's not start pointing out that his numbers are entirely misleading, as one would expect from him, just yet.  Let's just continue to show that even when he was trying to make his distorted, misleading point, the numbers he chose to give show his points to be completely inaccurate.





Quote:

According to the numbers Rush Limbaugh will run "forever" on his website, proclaiming they show tax cuts for the rich are not only "fair", but required to "balance things out," as he and his buddies regularly claim, the top 1% of us made 20.81 percent of the money.  Now compare that to what the first 50% of wage earners make:  12.99 percent for the year 2000.

Notice anything?  Notice that half of us combined, half of the nation working for the whole year, not only doesn't make as much as this top 1% of us, they make barely half?  Remember, this includes "households filing jointly."  Half of the households in this nation, working for a year, don't make combined what just 1 percent of us makes. ...


Fair play!