1-31-03

By Jerry Eicher

Dear Editor,

Your editorial on taxes, “A Bush (el) For The Richest One Percent”, reveals a basic disregard for reality, as well as some unwarranted feelings. Why is a tax cut which benefits the richest one percent a scandal when the richest one percent pay the most taxes?

I grew up around farms, and though we never milked ourselves, I have been in milking parlors while the milking was going on. Probably not all farmers who milk do this, but I can remember some of the cows being given greater amounts of feed while they were being milked. I was told that these were the best milkers. That farmer knew what common sense was, and was not motivated by feelings or political correctness. He rightly knew that giving the good cow an extra amount of food produced more results than giving the poor milker the equal extra amount.

The same is true for this tax situation that we are in at present. Simple logic guides our feelings in the correct direction. According to the numbers released by the IRS for the tax year 2000, half of American taxpayer’s pay 96.09% of the taxes in this country. The top richest 1% are earning 20.81% of taxable income, and are paying 37.42% of the federal tax. Sounds like a pretty good producing cow to me. If you give a tax break how are you going to help from giving it to the people who pay the most income tax? Seems to me we ought to get off this high horse about the rich and be grateful for how much of the tax burden they are bearing in this country.

That is not all of the story either. The top 5% of taxpayers are paying 56.47% of the taxes, the top 10% of taxpayers are paying 67.3% of the taxes, and as said above the top 50% are paying 96.09% of the taxes in this country. That means that the other half of all taxpayers, are paying only 3.91% of the taxes in this country. It could well be noted that 100% of taxpayers does not equal 100% of income earners in this country, as many pay no income tax at all even though they have income. What in the world is all this whining about the rich? If we want to produce more results, that is more taxes collected, some good farming common sense would be much more productive than this stirring up of whatever these feelings are against the rich.

So who really are the rich among us? The richest 1%, according to the IRS tables are those who have adjusted gross income of $313,469.00. After that it then takes only an adjusted gross income of $128,336.00 to be in the top 5% of tax payers and pay over half of the income taxes in this country. You will only have to make an adjusted gross income of $55,225.00 to be in the top 25% of tax payers and pay 84.01% of the taxes. Maybe we ought to wake up to the fact that the rich are not really the bogey man in the attic but common people that we are around every day. Few of us may know someone who makes over $300,000.00 dollars, but there are certainly those around who are in the top 5%. Then there are many homes in this area where both the husband and wife work with decent jobs, and who are in the top 25% of tax payers with over $55,000.00 in income.

I think the farmer was right in giving the extra feed to the best producing cow, and I believe it is right to give the tax breaks to those who pay the taxes. If the farmer gets more milk out of his cow, we might actually get more taxes paid by the top 25% of income producers in this country. Let that bushel tip over and shake out a little extra.