Pressed on how they would bring more people into the tax system, none of the top three campaigns offered details. Alice Stewart, a spokeswoman for Mrs. Bachmann, said the Minnesotan "believes that the tax code is too complicated and must be reformed to be fairer and flatter."Profiles in courage, there. It would seem that the Republicans are using this purely as a divisive tactic. Even some of their own intellectuals disagree with it:
Campaign spokeswoman Gail Gitcho said Mr. Romney "is opposed to tax increases," adding he would produce his economic plan in the fall.
"Governor Perry wants more people on the tax rolls not by raising taxes or expanding the tax base, but by putting people to work," said Perry spokesman Mark Miner.
Kevin Hassett, director of economic policy at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, said the GOP candidates were wrong to assume that working-class voters support government programs because they are free.
Poorer households pay disproportionate shares of what Mr. Hassett calls stealth taxes on gasoline, alcohol and cigarette, even lottery tickets. They may get back in Social Security and Medicare benefits more than they pay in payroll taxes, but that is cold comfort for struggling young workers trying to buy a house, he said.
Low-income households as a group do, in fact, pay federal taxes. Congressional Budget Office data show that the poorest fifth of households paid an average of 4.0 percent of their incomes in federal taxes in 2007, the latest year for which these data are available — not an insignificant amount given how modest these households’ incomes are; the poorest fifth of households had average income of $18,400 in 2007. The next-to-the bottom fifth — those with incomes between $20,500 and $34,300 in 2007 — paid an average of 10.6 percent of their incomes in federal taxes.We don't know what Mitt's been paying in taxes all these years, but we do know what he paid in 2010: 13.9%
Moreover, even these figures greatly understate low-income households’ total tax burden because these households also pay substantial state and local taxes. Data from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy show that the poorest fifth of households paid a stunning 12.3 percent of their incomes in state and local taxes in 2011.
When all federal, state, and local taxes are taken into account, the bottom fifth of households pays about 16 percent of their incomes in taxes, on average. The second-poorest fifth pays about 21 percent
