Just Who Are These "Taxpayers"?

We hear much lately about the "taxpayer funded" bailouts for GM and Chrysler, Citibank and Wells Fargo, and myriad other financial institutions. The TARP funds, the Recovery Act -- all are funded by these mysterious taxpayers. That is one heck of a lot of money. Trillions, in fact.

I have thumped my chest and pounded my fist with the best of us "taxpayers" in the past few months so very irritated that my hard-earned money was being sent to liars, cheats, and thieves, plus a few good companies as well. I wasn't sure just how much of this huge bill was mine, but today I heard that maybe I wasn't the hero I thought I was. Giving my hard earned bucks turns out to be a pittance compared to the burden paid by those in the upper incomes.

I found out that the top 1% (that's one percent) of taxpayers pay about 40% of the income taxes. The upper 5% of taxpayers cover about 60% of all federal income taxes, and when you get to the upper 10% of those "taxpayers", they pay about 70% of the total income tax (Fortune, April 2008).

In fact, I found out that the bottom 40% of Americans who file tax returns have a negative income tax. With deductions, earned income credit and the like, some actually get back more than they pay in. Can you believe that?

I am not in the top 1, 5 , or even 10%. I am not in the bottom 40 % either, but my contribution to the treasury is certainly puny compared to those in the upper brackets. So while I still might pound my fist at the money pit we seem to have created in the U.S. government, I understand that there are many others who could pound harder and yell louder. No wonder they get irritated when politicians say the rich "aren't paying their fair share". What the hell does that mean?