Poor People and Taxes

Here's a great quote from the T.A.P. newsletter of 6/6/03:

...ever wonder why so many conservatives -- from Bob Novak to Rush
Limbaugh to The Wall Street Journal editorial page -- keep talking about how poor people don't pay taxes? ... Aaron Schatz looks at the absurdity of this bald-faced lie. Of course many of the poor don't pay federal income taxes. But given the number of regressive taxes out there, many end up paying a larger percentage of their earnings to the government than the average American. As Schatz puts it: "The Wall Street Journal, for example, claimed this week that the tax bill "exempts another three million-plus low-income workers from any federal tax liability whatsoever." Perhaps, but apparently these 3 million people aren't paying FICA. They also don't drive cars, smoke, drink or use the phone. That's not 3 million people. That's Eric Robert Rudolph."