Half of Americans pay no taxes?

You’ve probably heard that a lot from the Republicans and their colleagues in the media. It’s a disingenuous statement. As they well know, most Americans pay taxes in many forms to many different entities. They pay Social Security taxes, Medicare taxes, sales taxes, property taxes, state income taxes, estate taxes, gasoline taxes, cigarette and liquor …

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An imagined dialogue

Michael Grunwald at Swampland: If the debt-limit debate had anything to do with reality, every story about it would include a few basic facts. Starting with: President Obama inherited a $1.2 trillion budget deficit. And: Republican leaders supported the tax cuts and wars that (along with the recession, another pre-Obama phenomenon) created that deficit. Also: …

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