"We don't pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes," billionaire hotelier Leona Helmsley famously (and allegedly) sniffed. She wasn't entirely correct: The superrich do still pay taxes. The wealthiest 1 percent of taxpayers pay 32 percent of all income tax collected by the federal government.
But the superrich don't pay as much as they used to—and thanks to a combination of tax cuts and preferential tax policies, their tax obligations can be less demanding than the so-called little people's. In fact, the very wealthiest Americans' tax burden has been steadily dropping for years, even as they've enjoyed astounding income growth not seen by the vast majority of Americans.
Tax rates for the wealthy have fallen substantially since they peaked in the 1940s. During the past 30 years, they have been cut at a much faster rate than middle- and low-income taxpayers'.
Just how much of a windfall are tax cuts for the wealthy? The extension of the Bush tax cuts passed last year will provide $146,000 in annual tax savings, on average, to each of the wealthiest 0.1% of Americans.
Well, what about the rest of us? This chart should tell you everything you need to know:
Kind of a bummer, huh? The Bush tax cuts are saving the vast majority of Americans only a few bucks a year. But the wealthiest one-tenth of the top one percent? They get an extra $140,000 or so after their income has skyrocketed. The last 12 years or so have been very, very good to the wealthy. But they are "over taxed" and we dare not ask them to pay more in relation to the massive increase in income they've recieved or there will be terrible consequences.
Like, say, a financial crisis and Republicans screaming that we need to end Medicare, maybe?
Still think the problem is spending and not revenue?
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