More people view Mitt Romney unfavorably (49 percent) than view Barack Obama unfavorably (45 percent), according to the most recent Reason-Rupe Poll. This, despite Romney being the challenger, while President Obama must live down his sorry record.
By this measure, and others in the poll, Obama’s re-election seems ever more likely. And if you think that’s depressing, wait till you read about the general views of taxing the rich more. The “soak the rich” mentality remains quite strong. But some of this “the rich don’t pay their fair share” notion is based on misinformation. Get a load of this:
Last year, the government collected about $1.8 trillion dollars in income tax revenue. If you were to estimate, about what PERCENTAGE of this total tax revenue do you think the top 5 percent of households probably contributed? Would you say…
<1% . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3%
1% to less than 20% . . . . . . . 29%
20% to less than 40% . . . . . . 19%
40% to less than 60% . . . . . . 15%
60% to less than 80% . . . . . . 11%
80% or more . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8%
Don’t Know/Refused . . . . . . . 16%
The truth is that America’s Top 5 percenters pay more than 60 percent of income taxes collected. The vast majority of those polled (66 percent) thought the Top 5 should pay less than they currently do.
I’m not going out on a limb, here, to infer a lesson: Were Americans to learn a few more truths about their government, about taxes, and (hey, why not?) real life, they might change their minds on a few crucial political notions.
Education — and by this I don’t mean schooling — is obviously important to political betterment.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.