Friday, July 15, 2011

80% of Americans want higher taxes? They sure don't act like it

I saw an article today that parroted the claim by some democrats that “80 percent of people support higher taxes”. This is a lie. Perhaps its not the politicians who are lying, and it is the group of people they polled, but somebody is lying. For this post I am going to pretend that the statistic is accurate and 80% of people answered some pollster that they support higher taxes.

I know this is a lie because the actions of people betray their words. The other day I had a little back and forth about the mortgage interest deduction on income taxes. But why were we even discussing this? If the statistic is true 80% of those who qualify for this tax deduction don't take it. 80% of people with kids, simply don't claim those kids as dependents, and 80% of people refuse to take any other tax deduction, including their personal deduction right? So only 20% of tax payers take any sort of deduction. I mean you are not going to get thrown in a cage for overpaying, or not claiming deductions that you are qualified for, so I assume those 80% of people (I must be in the minority) don't claim any deductions. This is the only logical conclusion I can make when I hear someone claim they are for higher taxes, that at the minimum they don't take any deductions, otherwise I assume they are lying, perhaps they also donate to the treasury above and beyond, but it seems doubtful, that would take effort, but not taking a deduction when filling out the tax form is actually easier than claiming. Just fill out the EZ form and don't even claim yourself..