For an antitax group, the Tea Party protestors certainly don't know much about taxes, concluded a tax columnist with Forbes, after a survey of Tea Party protestors showing that most of them thought taxes were three times higher than what they actually are and were unaware that 40% of Obama's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was tax cuts.
They thought taxes were 42% of the GDP when they have never been higher than 20.9 percent. And when asked what an average family earning $50,000 would pay in taxes they answered around $12,000 when the Tax Tables published for calculating taxes due this year show the tax to be only $6,669.
When asked whether taxes had gone up or down since Obama was inaugurated, two thirds of the Tea crowd thought they had gone up.
According to Forbes, taxes are considerably lower by every measure since Obama took office. The Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation said federal taxes were reduced by 100 billion in 2009 and will be reduced by $222 billion in 2010.
To read the full article Go to Bruce Bartlett's article in Forbes Magazine on-line at:
http://www.forbes.com/2010/03/18/tea-party-ignorant-taxes-opinions-columnists-bruce-bartlett.html
They thought taxes were 42% of the GDP when they have never been higher than 20.9 percent. And when asked what an average family earning $50,000 would pay in taxes they answered around $12,000 when the Tax Tables published for calculating taxes due this year show the tax to be only $6,669.
When asked whether taxes had gone up or down since Obama was inaugurated, two thirds of the Tea crowd thought they had gone up.
According to Forbes, taxes are considerably lower by every measure since Obama took office. The Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation said federal taxes were reduced by 100 billion in 2009 and will be reduced by $222 billion in 2010.
To read the full article Go to Bruce Bartlett's article in Forbes Magazine on-line at:
http://www.forbes.com/2010/03/18/tea-party-ignorant-taxes-opinions-columnists-bruce-bartlett.html
