'Tax Freedom Day': Misleading Propaganda

A right-wing group called The Tax Foundation declared April 23 "Tax Freedom Day," representing the time it takes "Americans" to earn enough money to pay their federal, state and local taxes. A YouTube video dramatizes the organization's contention that average Americans are overtaxed, with a song that says, "I think it's too late in the year for Tax Freedom Day." But their annual proclamation is bogus.

Their calculation averages the tax burdens of the wealthy and the non-wealthy. And because the income increases experienced by the wealthiest 20 percent of taxpayers during the Bush administration far outstrip the income stagnation of the bottom 80 percent, the increase in tax receipts from that higher income bears no relationship to the tax burden of average families, which has actually gone down.

It's also misleading to say that families are paying more of their income in taxes than they are spending on food, clothing and other necessities. That is definitely untrue for low-income families, who may pay little or nothing in federal taxes, and is likely to be untrue for a number of middle-income families, depending on the tax deductions available to them.