Do 'The Rich' Pay Enough In Taxes? You Decide.

President Obama and the Democrats keep bellyaching.

They say the rich don't pay their fair share of taxes.

They say that people in high income brackets must pay more, more, more.

This has been the single most repeated refrain of the Obama Administration. It's their mantra, their modus operandi, their holy grail.

In fact, this assertion has been the whole basis for Obamanomics: The idea that taxes must be raised, government must grow larger and wealth must be redistributed from the haves to the have-nots.

But is it all true?

Well, the Associated Press has just conducted it's own study based on figures from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office and the independent Tax Policy Center.

Here's what they discovered:

"A new analysis, however, shows that average [federal income] tax bills for for high-income families have rarely been higher since the Congressional Budget Office began tracking the data in 1969."

Here are more conclusions of the study. Note, all tax rates apply to federal income taxes:

The top one-percent in income pay an average tax rate of 35.5 percent.

The top 20 percent pay an average tax rate of 27.2 percent.

The middle 20 percent pay an average tax rate of 13.8 percent

The bottom 20 percent pay no federal income taxes. In fact, the average rate for them is minus 2.7 percent.

And how does that break down in terms of overall share of the total income tax burden? Here's how it works out:

The bottom 20 percent in income pay a ZERO share (minus .4 percent) of the total tax burden.

The middle 20 percent pay 8.6 percent of the total tax burden.

The top 20 percent pay a whopping 71.8 percent share of the total.

The top one percent pay a disproportionate 30.2 percent share of the total.

These are the figures. 

The numbers speak for themselves.

And remember the conclusion: Taxes on the wealthiest have "rarely been higher."

And don't forget this: The percentages of taxes paid quoted above applies only to federal income taxes. These percentages do not include other federal, state and local taxes.

Add in payroll taxes, other federal levies, state income taxes, sales taxes, excise taxes and on and on and you will see that many wage earners are lucky to keep even half of what they make.

And yet, Democrats and liberal know-it-alls still think they don't pay enough!