Amazing stats

First, today my friend Kristen came down to visit us for lunch. She and her husband Chad live on the complete opposite side of town, so I never get to see her. We had so much fun!! Grant showed her all of his toys and ran around like crazy when she first got here. She was here for three hours, but it wasn't nearly long enough to completely catch up (especially when Grant's running around and demanding quite a bit of attention). I will post a cute picture of her and Grant when I get it uploaded. I wish she lived closer!!

Everyone reading this probably knows that I'm very politically inclined. Grant and I listen to Rush Limbaugh almost every day.....it helps me to feel connected to the outside world while I'm chasing a toddler around nonstop!

Anyway, last week on his show, Rush talked about a recent article from the Wall Street Journal. Every year, they break down who pays what percentage of taxes in the US. It was staggering. In 2007, the top 1% of all taxpayers (those who make $388,000 or higher) paid 40% of all income taxes! Well, you might say, all those millionaires probably make 40% of all the money, right? No......they account for 22% of all the income, yet they pay 40% of all taxes.

Next: the top 10% of all taxpayers (those with a household income of $108,000 or more) pay somewhere around 70% of all income taxes.

And.....this was the most mind-blowing to me: the top 50% of all taxpayers pay 97.1% of all taxes. That means that the bottom HALF of all taxpayers in the US only pay a total of 2.9% of all income taxes. Wow.

And Barack Obama claims that he wants to cut taxes on struggling low-income families?? How is this possible??