Chart of the Week: Who Is Paying Taxes?

Federal tax revenue from corporations fell from between 5 and 6 percent of GDP in the 1950s to 1.2% of GDP in 2008. As this chart from the 2008 Budget of the United States shows, the collapse of corporate income tax revenue has been replaced by regressive payroll taxes, which provided more than one-third of revenue in 2008 compared to just one-tenth in the 1950s, while the individual income tax has remained relatively constant, contributing about half of total federal revenue:

Excise taxes, that affect the wealthy more than any other socio-economic strata, were also higher in the 1950s, contributing 19% of total tax revenue in 1950 compared to less than 3% in recent years. The Bush Era tax cuts provided even greater tax relief for the rich. This chart show the extent of the federal debt attributable to lost tax revenue in tax cuts [yellow] for the rich:

If right wing super patriots now want to cut the deficit*, they need to direct their representatives in Congress to do two relatively simple things (in anyplace except Washington DC): end the imperial wars in the Middle East and Africa, and let the tax breaks for the rich expire. But what are the Repugnants offering the American public as a solution to the deficits created by their profligate administration? More of the same trickle down nonsense that got us into this jam.  To reinforce the message of the declining economic status of the working class in America is this final chart from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showing the collapse of wages as a share of the national income:

*It was Vice President 'Darth' Cheney that reportedly told a White House conference considering a second round of tax cuts that, "Reagan proved deficits don't matter"His boss, the Charlatan, created the largest public debt in the history of the Republic at the time. Forty-two percent of the explosion in debt is attributable to his program of tax relief for America's wealthy. The cuts were incredibly sold as a job creation program! The economy did not add a single new job during the three years of the Charlatan's tax cuts. Now, fewer numbers of Americans are working since the First Great Depression.