Since Twins baseball games are broadcast here in the Twin Cities by KSTP radio, I am sometimes obliged to hear between-inning ads for the station's other programs--mostly conservative talk. A spot for Joe Soucheray's "Garage Logic" is nothing more than a snippet from a recent show. Joe [Soucheray] goes on a riff concerning Joe [Biden's] remark that it's time for the richest Americans to step up to the plate and do the patriotic thing: pay more tax. Joe [Soucheray] apostrophized on how the top ten per cent of income earners pay about 65 per cent of all federal income tax and concluded that Biden is "a blithering idiot."
Which raises a question that, at least in the advertising spot, Soucheray did not take up: what part of federal income tax should be paid by the top earners? Evidently it is ridiculous that the top ten per cent pay almost two-thirds. So what would be apt? According to the Tax Foundation, the top ten per cent of earners take in 47 per cent of all income. So, under a flat tax, they would pay 47 per cent of the tax, right? The difference between 47 and 65 represents the degree of progressivity in the tax code. Is that really so outrageous?
I'm with Biden, though there are better things for him to be saying while out on the campaign trail.
And if Biden is a "blithering idiot," what is Sarah Palin?
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