Underground Informer
Volume 5 Issue 18
November 5, 1994
Page 8


Rush Limbaugh the Anti-Christ? Part 2 (continued from previous page)
                                                                     By Pip...

     Now about those burger-flipper jobs.  Well, this chart is rather lacking 
in more than one area.  OK, let's define a burger-flipper job as a job paying  
around minimum wage.  To see where this fits in, we do the numbers at $4.25 an 
hour, eight hours a day, five days a week, 52 weeks a year.  Hmm, the minimum-
wage job paid $8,840 a year.  Clearly, this job fits in the 46.2 percent 
middle-class area Rush says are not burger-flipper jobs.  Of course, we can't 
tell how much of the 46.2 percent from this chart is taken up by that job 
base, but that's how Rush wanted it or you'd have seen another chart. 

     Nor can we tell what the numbers of jobs are that Reagan created.  During 
this time slot, the computer revolution burst into full flower.  New jobs were 
blooming everywhere, and many of them fit into the over-$28,000 area.  But 
these jobs came about as part of a process already in place; they had nothing 
to do with Reagan or his plan.  Had Kermit the Frog been president, these jobs 
would have come at that time.    

     Another little trick here is that Rush is only showing you the 1980-84  
numbers; we have not seen the '85-89 numbers.  Given the Reagan tax hike, his 
removing tax shelters, and his shifting taxes from federal to local and state 
governments coupled with defense cutbacks, those numbers should be quite  
interesting.  Given Clinton's statement, and that we are not allowed to see  
these numbers, and that the point of this show was to play up how great the 
Reagan years were--along with the fact that these years *are* shown in his 
other charts, which contain the same four years of Carter versus eight years 
of Reagan--you can be very sure that these numbers were left out for a reason. 

Back to Rush:

     "Now let's look at the total tax burden.  That's next because Clinton and 
his gang love to point out that only the rich got a tax break; the rich got a 
tax break and didn't share any of their new-found wealth with the middle class 
and the poor, and so the country became immensely unfair.  Take a look at this 
breakdown.  Here's a history of the Reagan years, 1981 through '88."

Let me put his chart up:

        Share of Federal Income Taxes Paid by Income Groups, 1981/1988
  
       Fiscal Year       Top 5% Wage Earners    Bottom 50% Wage Earners
          1981                   35%                      8%
          1988                   46%                      6%

Source: Richard McKenzie, What Went Right in the 1980's, p. 277: Christopher 
Frenze, The Federal Income Tax Burden, 1981-1987. Joint Economic Committee 90.

Resuming with Rush:

     "In 1981 the top 5 percent of wage earners paid 35 percent of the total 
tax burden, and this is when Reagan took office, and the bottom 50 percent of 
wage earners only paid 8 percent of the total tax burden.  Now look at after 
Reagan when the rich tax rate went down.  In 1988 when he leaves office, the 
top 5 percent of wage earners pay 46 percent of the tax burden, an 11 percent 
increase, and the bottom 50 percent of the wage earners in America had their 
share of the tax burden drop.  Now I...  Leave the chart up for just a second 
there, Chet.  When Reagan took office in '81, the top marginal rate was 70 
percent, and when he left office in '88, the top marginal rate was 31 percent.  
And yet with that tax rate reduction, the rich ended up paying a larger share 
of the total tax burden, so don't believe this stuff about the wealthy and 
their unfair cuts and tax breaks they got, because even to this day they are 
paying, the top 5% are paying 44 percent of the total tax burden.

Pip here yet again:

     Now to go over these indisputable facts.  Hmm, this chart needs filling 
in.  

First, this is how Rush wants you to see it:

        Share of Federal Income Taxes Paid by Income Groups, 1981/1988
 
       Fiscal Year       Top 5% Wage Earners    Bottom 50% Wage Earners
          1981                   35%                      8%
          1988                   46%                      6%

This is the same chart with a few blanks filled in:

        Share of Federal Income Taxes Paid by Income Groups, 1981/1988
 
Fiscal Year    Top 5% Wage Earners    Missing 45%    Bottom 50% Wage Earners
   1981                35%                57%                  8%  
   1988                46%                48%                  6%

Rate of change        +11%                -9%                 -2%  Total 0%

It's the same numbers; I've just filled in the blanks. 

     This seems to support Rush, but wait a second.  What else did he say?  Ah 
yes, let me quote him. 

     "When Reagan took office in '81, the top marginal rate was 70 percent, 
and when he left office in '88, the top marginal rate was 31 percent.  And yet 
with that tax rate reduction, the rich ended up paying a larger share of the 
total tax burden, so don't believe this stuff about the wealthy and their 
unfair cuts and tax breaks they got, because even to this day they are paying, 
the top 5 percent are paying 44 percent of the total tax burden." 

(Continued on next page)

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