Quote of the day - Obama and his Class Warfare

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“There is no doubt we need additional revenue, coupled with smart spending reductions, in order to bring down our deficit. And we can do it in a gradual way so it doesn’t have a huge impact. As I said, when you look at some of these deductions that certain folks are able to take advantage of, the average person can’t take advantage of them. The average person doesn’t have access to Cayman Island accounts, the average person doesn’t have access to carried interest income where they end up paying a much lower rate on billions of dollars that they’ve earned. And so we want to make sure that the whole system is fair, that it’s transparent, and that we’re reducing our deficit in a way that doesn’t hamper growth, reduce the kinds of — you know, strategies that we need, in order to make sure that we’re creating good jobs and a strong middle class.”

~ President Obama

According to new IRS data, the 1.35 million taxpayers that represent the highest-earning one percent of the Americans who filed federal income tax returns in 2010 earned 18.9% of the total gross income and paid 37.4% of all federal income taxes paid in that year. In contrast, the 128.3 million taxpayers in the bottom 95% of all U.S. taxpayers in 2010 earned 66.2% of gross income and that group paid 40.9% of all taxes paid. In other words, the top 1 percent (1.35 million) of American taxpayers paid almost as much federal income tax in 2010 ($354.8 billion) as the entire bottom 95% of American tax filers ($388.4 billion). And it’s that group of top income earners (with income above $221,000 in 2010 to be in the top one percent), that Obama and the Democrats want to tax even more. Source:  AEI Ideas