The Rich & The Corporations Don't Pay Enough In Taxes

The chart above may surprise some people, but a majority (53%) of Americans think their own taxes are about right. They may not love paying taxes (who does?) but they know it is necessary, and they don't think they are being overtaxed. But that doesn't mean they think the current tax system is fair.

As the charts below show, substantial majorities of the people in this country think the corporations (64%) and the rich (61%) don't pay their fair share of taxes -- and they are bothered a lot about that. They know this is a primary reason why the wealth gap between the rich and the rest of America is so large (and still growing). It irritates them that many corporations pay no taxes at all (even though they make billions in profits), and the super rich don't pay as large a percentage in taxes as many in the middle class (like the 13% that Romney paid on more than $20 million in income).

The Republicans don't seem to understand this. They still want to give the rich and the corporations more tax breaks -- falsely claiming that will help all Americans. It won't, as decades of this "trickle-down" economics has already shown us. Cutting taxes for the rich and corporations (neither of which needs more tax cuts) just makes the rich even richer. It does nothing for the 90-99% of Americans.

These charts were made from a recent survey by the Pew Research Center -- done between February 18th and 22nd of a random national sample of 1,504 adults, with a margin of error of 2.9 points.