"Tax hikes destroy jobs" --Speaker of the House John Boehner

According to the Congressional Budget Office, the richest 10% of Americans pay half of all taxes.

Republicans cite this all the time.

They don't add this fact from the same source:

The richest 10% of Americans get 40% of all American income.

Which means that they only pay a little more on their income than do the other 90%. So we have nearly a flat tax, in effect.


And it means the constant harping on that 10% pay 50% is true but it's a lie when you say it and imply that everyone else is getting a free ride. We aren't. We're just getting soaked by the unquenchable greed of the richest.

Oh, and if "tax hikes destroy jobs," then tax cuts create jobs, right? One can't be true without the other.
Well, the Bush Era was historically lousy in jobs creation as corporate America closed our plants and shipped the jobs to China etc., even as taxes on the rich sank to historic lows.

But watch the face of a self-styled conservative when you tell them this. Momentary consternation, followed by challenging your facts, then discounting the source, whatever it is--even, as in this case, the nonpartisan CBO that Republicans cite constantly when a report favors their side--or can be cherrypicked to seem so.

Their commitment is to their ideology, not the truth.

I should add that Democrats have their sacred cows too of course. They just aren't trying to wreck our country quite as vigorously as the GOP is right now.