One of my favorite internet pastimes is tracking Tea Party silliness. I followed a link that took me here. The point of this article is that tea baggers don't know what they're talking about.
But this paragraph caught my eye.
The first question that was asked concerned the size of government. Tea Partyers were asked how much the federal government gets in taxes as a percentage of the gross domestic product. According to Congressional Budget Office data, acceptable answers would be 6.4%, which is the percentage for federal income taxes; 12.7%, which would be for both income taxes and Social Security payroll taxes; or 14.8%, which would represent all federal taxes as a share of GDP in 2009.
Teabaggers, of course, have an inflated view of the government's fingers in 'their' pockets.
Tuesday's Tea Party crowd, however, thought that federal taxes were almost three times as high as they actually are. The average response was 42% of GDP and the median 40%. The highest figure recorded in all of American history was half those figures: 20.9% at the peak of World War II in 1944.
Now, federal taxes are just a share of what a person pays in taxes. But still, it'd be nice if they knew what they were talking about.
I wonder if that 12.7% includes corporate income tax. I know I paid a lot more than 12.7% in income taxes last year. Many corps. (my fellow citizens) don't.
This year, I aspire to hit 12.7%. :-)