47% of Tea Partiers Pay No Federal Income Taxes! Atlantic Estimates

Taxed Enough Already? Or not taxed at all?

One of the striking ironies of Fox News running with the statistic that 47% of Americans might not owe federal income taxes is that Fox News also moonlights as the unofficial station of the Tea Party movement, which clamors for lower taxes. You might ask: half of the country pays no income tax, how much lower do you want? Here's a more troubling point: if the Tea Party movement has a similar share of Americans making under $50,000 as the broader population (as a recent Gallup poll suggests), then why is this movement rallying under the banner "Taxed Enough Already!" when half of them aren't taxed at all?

Forty-five percent of self-identified "Tea Partiers" make less than $50,000 per year, according to a USA Today/Gallup poll. Similarly, 50% of the total population makes less than $50,000 in the same poll. Despite this author's lack of direct access to the tax returns of the Tea Party movement, it seems safe to assume that if about half the country avoids federal income taxes, about half the Tea Party movement gets away with the same even as they march and scream about their tax burden.

Nearly one-half of the Tea Party is against taxes they don't pay. This is a gotcha point. But it's a gotcha point worth making, if only to shine light on the sad intellectual bankruptcy of the Tea Party, a political movement that has taken over the news cycle like a particularly aggressive strain of ragweed. Tea Partiers want lower income taxes. But almost half of them probably don't pay income taxes. If we listen to them and bring even more Americans into the zero-income tax pool, we would only concentrate more of the tax burden on wealthy earners ... which conservatives are against. Tea Party apologists on TV will explain that what they're really asking for is lower rates and a broader tax base to diffuse America's tax responsibility. But if half the Tea Party doesn't pay income taxes today, a broader tax base -- even with minuscule rates -- would raise many of their taxes!

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2010/04/47-of-tea-partiers-pay-no-federal-income-taxes/38924/

They really don't have a clue as to why they are protesting, they just simply hate the idea of a black democrat as president! I also heard that many of them are also on unemployment or some kind of government disability programs. They complain about losing their "rights" but can't tell you what rights they have lost since Obama became president. They say take away the programs that will help those without health insurance, yet say "don't touch MY SS, unemployment, or disability program"!

They are simply gullible paranoid people who are letting the hate monger tell them what to do, what to say at their protests, and they "THINK" the republicans getting back in charge will save them. Problem is that if the republicans get their way they will lose all the things they have now, yet they are to ignorant to figure this out!

The are so afraid of anyone (except the rich) getting something they don't have..or more than they have...that they will work against their own best interests. And they don't realize that's what they're doing.

:applause:

$50,000/year have to do with paying or not paying taxes?

I make less than that and I certainly pay federal taxes. What am I missing?

A family of 4 with total income under $50K probably pays no federal income tax. But single filers and DINKs like my wife and I sure do.