To the Republicans whose only idea is 'tax cuts' and 'more tax cuts.' Read this and get a clue!

[flpoljunkie]

Think your taxes are bad?

Every year, you grimace as you sign your return. Imagine what it's like in Belgium or Hungary, where taxes can take half your pay. Plus: the wackiest taxes on record.

By Debora Vrana

Believe it or not, Americans enjoy some of the lowest income tax rates in the world. Today of all days, it might not seem so.

When you look at the overall tax burden, the U.S. is quite low," said Eric Toder, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C., and former director of the office of research for the Internal Revenue Service.

For a family with one wage-earner and two children, only Iceland and Ireland have a lower income tax burden than the U.S., according to the most recent data for 2005.

At the top, Sweden, Turkey, France and Poland impose the biggest tax burdens on families, but in most of those countries families get added social services, such as secure pensions and health care.

Citizens in these other countries are paying more money, but they are getting more back, in terms of social programs, said Christopher Heady, head of tax policy for the Paris-based think tank Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD. Its a choice the electorate makes.

The OECD collects data on 30 member countries and annually calculates what it calls the tax "wedge" for each -- the combined effects of personal income tax, employee and employer social security contributions, payroll taxes and cash benefits.

Click link for Tax Burdens Around the World:

http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/Taxes/P148855.asp

In 2003, total federal state and local taxes in the United States were 24.2% of our gross domestic product, ranking among the lowest in the world, with only Mexico at 19.5% with a lower tax rate. Along with the higher taxes, the difference between the U.S. and some of the other industrialized countries are increased social services, such as pensions and health-care funding.

[opihimoimoi]

1. Won't get much comments....brain washed into semi coma state of minds when it comes to these things

Bachmann would spin it somehow....

[flpoljunkie]

2. A good article to bookmark for your clueless Republican friends and relatives.

[opihimoimoi]

4. Thank you.... BTW....I see them Pubs crawling for cover...they are so

distraught they are like sick rabid dogs...snapping at every and anything.....

The flow of informantion has reached a level of no return for the Pubs......they are doomed by information to the masses in so many ways its gone wild...

The Wicked Witches of the Doomed GOP flew the Coop while the lower Pub Wannabe s suffer from Brand Name Damage

The Existing/ surviving Republicans are finding out...Them Top GOP Witches Crapped in the GOP Water Suppy....everything has a shitty odor...especially when they speak....

Rush is their LAEDER?????? A Radio Host is the De Facto Leader of the US Republican Party??? WTF happened there man??

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. Thanks for the article

I know people always gasp in surprise when I tell them how low my property taxes are. But then I go on to tell them I have:

1. No 911 service
2. No fire department service
3. No trash service
4. Barely any service on the road--grading twice a year--and all country roads I believe are dirt
5. No animal rescue
6. No municipal water or sewer

It's surprising how many people who moan about high taxes don't like to do without these things.

[Zynx]

5. This is a great article. Rightwinger really don't know what they are talking about when it comes to

tax policy.