The top 400: Income way up and taxes way, way down

[babsbunny]

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/joe_conason/2010/02/17/top400/index.html

A new IRS report on the richest 400 taxpayers shows their income rose an average of $81 million -- in a single year

By Joe Conason

Before angry voters restore Republicans to power -- in the name of "tea party populism" -- perhaps they should consider just how well right-wing rule worked out for them during the past decade. Last fall a Census Bureau study found that real median household income had declined from $52,500 in 2000, the last year that Bill Clinton was president, to $50,303 in 2008, George W. Bush's final year -- a period during which Republicans dominated Congress as well. Millions of those median households lost their health insurance (and, since the onset of the Great Recession, many of those same families have lost jobs as well).

So most of those middle-class Americans who flock to the tea party demonstrations were big losers during the Bush era. So who were the winners? According to David Cay Johnston, America's premier tax journalist, newly released IRS data shows that the country's very wealthiest citizens -- the top 400 -- marked enormous income gains while paying less and less in taxes. For purposes of comparison, Johnston notes that the bottom 90 percent of Americans saw their incomes rise by only 13 percent in 2009 dollars, compared with a 399 percent increase for the top 400.

[Aviation Pro]

1. The foolish....

...fucked up teabagging motherfuckers will never understand that there is a finite amount of money available in the U.S. and the super wealthy have basically cornered the market on it. These hapless fools don't understand that with each passing year their chances of becoming "rich" dwindle as they fight for the crumbs left by the wealthy.

Fuck 'em all, the teabaggers will get what they fucking deserve.