Ethics

Bachmann Gets Facts Wrong. Again.

By Ed Brayton

From that same "slit your wrists" speech:

Moving to taxes, Bachmann said that for some Americans, the ratio of tax payments to earned income can reach 50 percent -- compared to 5 percent in 1950.

"This is slavery, it's nothing more than slavery," she said. "The Constitution provides freedom."

Wrong. In 1950, the top federal tax rate alone was 84.36%. Now that is far too high, I agree (though I'm sure it came with a ton of loopholes - the Kennedys and Rockefellers were not handing over 85% of their income to the federal government, I assure you). But in fact, our current top marginal tax rate of 35% right now is lower than it has been for all but five years since 1932.

From 1988 to 1992, the top tax rate was 28-31%. Those are the only years since 1932 that the top tax rate was below what it is now. it was 39.6% from 1992 to 2000. Does that mean we we had "nothing more than slavery" throughout the 90s? If so, we were really slaves during those idyllic 1950s, when the top tax rate was over 90% for all but one year.

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on September 06, 2009 (boomark / email).