My Republican friends are turning cartwheels

[SheilaT]

17. Hmmm, is right.

For about 80 percent of us, maybe more, where we fit in is, as you pointed out so very well, much more complicated than being in the 47% who don't pay income taxes or in the 53% who do.

For one thing, some significant percent of that 53% still don't have a lot of money. Just because you make enough to pay income tax, doesn't mean you're rich and are therefore unfairly over-taxed, as Mitt and his ilk seem to think they are.

Many years ago a co-worker got a raise which pushed him up into a higher income bracket, and he complained bitterly about the additional income tax now being taken from his paycheck. I asked him, "Are you taking home as much as you used to?" He said actually, he was now taking home a little more. I wish I'd then said, "Then what are you complaining about?"

This was long before the current "all taxes are bad" crap, and I've long since lost track of this man, so I will not make any assumptions of what he would be thinking today. But he's a prime example of the current thinking that focusses ONLY on the taxes, and never on the benefits to society, or the fact that their take-home is still better than it was.