Rush Limbaugh's false canard: The meritocracy and the welfare mongers

Everthing is right wing wacko world is black and white. It is the hard work ethic v. the welfare ethic. Then its the utopian socailists v. the utopian capitlists.

Then  Limbaugh even brings up Dancing with the Stars and the airport scanners which are irrlelvant.

Then Limbaugh says its about those who pay taxes and those who do not. This is where his argument is patently false.

First of all only 8 per cent of Americans are on welfare. Whites have the biggest percentage of welfare recipients: 11,661,000 of 29,900,000 recipients are white. These are people who are getting income directly from the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services.

Most Americans want jobs and want to work. Many people on welfare would work if they could. Some have lost their unemployment compensation or my be seriously ill. Many are single mothers. Others are disabled and may be waiting for a VA or Social Security disability. This is a mixed bag of people.

The biggest Limbaugh lie is about taxes. All Americans pay taxes. Most Americans pay more in municipal and sales tax than they do in income tax.

Republicans whine about income tax because it is progressive and the rich pay a little more of their income in taxes than other Americans.

Never mind that the income tax tables have been greatly flattened since the Reagan era. In fact, the rate for the top American incomes was once 90 per cent. Today the top tax rate is less than 35 per cent.

The Democrats want to raise the top tax bracket closer to 40 per cent and the GOP is having a fit.

Who are these people who don't pay taxes? Most are people who make less than $30,000 per year and most of them live in the Red states that have lax labor laws and few unions.

As for the "donor states" that receive less than they give to the feds, the top 10 are: New Jersey, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Nevada, Illinois, Delaware, Colorado, New York, and California. That's eight "blue" states out of 10.

The top 10 recipient states, in order, are: New Mexico, Alaska, West Virginia, Mississippi, North Dakota, Alabama, Virginia, Hawaii, Montana, and South Dakota. For those counting at home, that's nine "red" states out of 10.

The key to the map is that any state receiving more than $1.00, is taking more from the federal till than it is puttting back in revenues.

To use a vulgar conservative metaphor, the Red states are well nourished from the federal teats!

Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_percentage_of_people_in_US_are_on_welfare#ixzz167vhUYrv

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