Noah on Tax Apples and Tax Oranges

Timothy Noah, who has joined The New Republic, explains one of the worst shell games in economic talking points about who pays what in taxes. Yes, the rich pay a higher percentage of total income tax revenue than the rest of us because they make more than the rest of us.

And, if you tune into Fox any night of the week, you will hear someone lamenting that the poor do not pay any federal income tax. That's true, of course, but it is also true that federal payroll taxes, and state sales taxes and property taxes, take up a larger percentage of their income than do income taxes for the very rich.

Lies, damned lies, and statistics.