The Bottom 20% Do Almost No Work, and You Pay for Them: How the Low-Income Bracket Drains Taxpayer Dollars

Antonio Graceffo, MBA, PhD | June 18, 2024 – Excerpts:

When you pay taxes, remember that the bottom 20% of income earners do almost no work, do not pay taxes, and receive government aid. The next lowest 20% pay minimal taxes but also receive government support.

Considering credits, the bottom half effectively pay about $667 per year. In contrast, the top 1% of income earners contribute roughly 38.8% of all federal income taxes, and the top 10% pay about 70% of the total federal income taxes. Most of the rest is paid by the Middle-income earners.

Households in the bottom 20% of income often pay little to no federal income taxes due to low taxable income and tax credits such as the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the Child Tax Credit (CTC). According to the Tax Policy Center, about 44% of U.S. households pay no federal income tax, largely because of these credits and deductions.

Many low-income households receive transfer payments from government programs like Medicaid, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and housing assistance.

In 2023, about 70.6 million Americans received benefits from programs administered by the Social Security Administration (SSA), including Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI). Additionally, millions more benefit from other social safety net programs. For example, in the 2022 fiscal year, approximately 41.2 million people received SNAP benefits.

There is a claim that while low-income households may not contribute significantly to federal income taxes, they do contribute to other forms of taxation such as payroll taxes, sales taxes, and property taxes on their homes. However, these arguments are easily refuted.

The Social Security contributions of the low-income group are minimal because they earn less money and work less frequently. Middle-income and high-income groups pay more into Social Security, with the maximum contribution occurring at an income of $168,000.

Additionally, low-income workers can receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI), a needs-based program that provides cash assistance to disabled adults and children with limited income and resources. SSI is not dependent on work history or contributions to Social Security.

The property tax argument falls apart because the poor are less likely to own a home. Property taxes are used to fund public schools, so people who do not pay property tax can still send their children to schools funded by other people’s property taxes under Title I.

A counter-argument is that renters indirectly pay property taxes through their rent payments, which landlords use to cover property taxes. However, in the old tenement system, there was a building owner who paid property taxes.

In the new system of projects and state housing, the government is the owner, and no property taxes are paid. Therefore, all the funding for local schools must come from other taxpayers in other neighborhoods.

Middle- and high-income earners contribute significantly to payroll taxes, which fund Social Security and Medicare. Self-employed individuals pay both the employer and employee portions of these taxes, effectively paying double.

Middle- and high-income individuals often own businesses and create jobs, contributing to the economy and generating employment opportunities, while also paying the employer’s share of payroll taxes. This entrepreneurial activity supports economic growth and can lead to increased tax revenues….

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Research from the Center for Poverty and Inequality Research at UC Davis suggests that a significant portion of children who grow up in poverty and receive public assistance continue to rely on these programs into adulthood.

Approximately one-third to one-half of children who experience poverty for a substantial part of their childhood remain poor as adults. A study by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) found that welfare receipt among parents significantly increases the likelihood of welfare participation among their children. This intergenerational correlation suggests that welfare use is, to some extent, a learned behavior, perpetuating the cycle of dependency.

In short, nearly the bottom half of the population is either paying no taxes, very little taxes, and/or receiving benefits. Every new social program for the non-payers represents a forced transfer of wealth from the working to the non-working and a transfer of government services from the taxpaying to the non-taxpaying.

Full article: here

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The Leviticus 25 Plan is the only plan in America with the power to re-balance this debt-ballooning fiscal abomination – and lift millions of American in the bottom 20% of income earners up out of poverty.

In return for the Citizens Credit Facility dynamic liquidity extensions of $90,000 per qualifying U.S. citizen, participants would no longer need, and no longer qualify for, the following programs: Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), Child Tax Credit (CTC), Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and housing assistance.

Millions of Americans in the bottom 20% of income earners would no longer be dependent on federal and state government programs for life’s basic necessities. They would no longer be penalized for engaging in gainful employment. They would become overnight positive contributors to income and payroll tax revenue flows.

The Leviticus 25 Plan is a dynamic economic initiative providing direct liquidity benefits for American families, while at the same time scaling back the role of government in managing and controlling the affairs of citizens.  It is a comprehensive plan with long-term economic and social benefits for citizens and government.

The inspiration for this plan is based upon Biblical principles set forth in the Book of Leviticus, principles tendering direct economic liberties to the people.

The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America

$90,000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2025 (17985 downloads )

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Student Debt Cancellation Is Extremely Unfair – Here Are 10 Reasons Why…

ZeroHedge, Jun 04, 2024 – Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com, – Excerpts:

Deeply Unfair – There is something about this “cancel” student debt bill that just feels *deeply* unfair to me.

Why have taxes from plumbers & electricians go towards paying the unpaid bills of college & masters grads?…

10 Reasons Why Student Debt Cancellation is Unfair

1. It is unfair to those who sacrificed to pay off their student loans and it’s unfair to those who foot the bill.
2. It is an upward transfer of wealth. The plumber pays for someone  else’s college education.
3. It encourages going to college when there might be better choices such as learning a trade. And It creates incentive to take on new student loans.
4. It is blatant election year bribe to college students and college graduates.
5. It creates creates a moral hazard for college administrators to sell useless degrees creating another overhang of new student debt.
6. It creates a moral hazard for students who might feel that their debt should be forgiven in the future
7. It subsidizes poor decision-making such as majoring in useless degrees including gender studies, anthropology, archeology, art history, music, culinary arts, fashion design, philosophy, etc.
8. The president has no power to forgive student loans. Doing so creates another precedent for presidential rule by decree. This is too big a financial decision not to involve Congress. The current student loan program was authorized by Congress and contains no such authority to the president.
9. Biden is openly flouting the Supreme court, another dangerous precedent.
10. Free money is highly inflationary. .

[Note] – As a Senator Biden sponsored a law that made it so student debt could not be discharged  in bankruptcy.

Then he was buying donations from the big banks who run their credit card operations out of Delaware.

Now he is buying votes.

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‘Student Loan Cancellation” schemes also: 1) Add to the national debt; 2) Set a bad political (and economic) precedent for future loan forgiveness schemes; 3) Reward idleness; and 4) Effectively penalize those who persevered through hard work and saving to pay off their student loans.

Main Street America Republicans have a plan that corrects these glaring deficiencies.

The Leviticus 25 Plan provides a far more powerful and comprehensive ‘debt elimination’ liquidity flow, a U.S. Citizens’ Credit Facility, that will benefit all qualifying U.S. citizens. It re-incentivizes work and industriousness, and does not add a dime to the national debt.

The Leviticus 25 Plan will revive free market economics and generate massive new tax revenue flows for federal, state, and local governments, resulting in an annual average of $112.6 billion federal budget surpluses each of the first five years of activation.

The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America

$90,000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2025 (17369 downloads )