And the Rich don't Pay a Disproportionate Share of Taxes

A lot has been written lately about how the wealthy pay most of the taxes collected by the government. This tired old lie gets trotted out every couple of months and is one of those zombie lies that is hard to kill. The wealthy do pay a larger share of income taxes. But what's wrong with that--would anyone reasonably argue that people who earn more money shouldn't pay more in taxes? Well, I guess Rep Ryan would.

The problem with this argument is that it doesn't include all taxes. Wealthy people are shielded from paying payroll taxes that are any greater than the rest of us by the cap on contributions. There are other regressive taxes where the wealthy get a break. By way of Ezra Klein, here's a graphic on the share of total taxes paid by each quintile.

The share of income paid as taxes is very similar to the share of total income except for the lowest income classes.