The congressman also let me know that New Jersey's Tax Freedom Day will not arrive until May 13, later than every other state in the nation with the exception of Connecticut.
Since RTE has a ton of readers in NJ & some that I know of in Connecticut I offer my condolences regarding the above results.
Tax Freedom Day has been calculated by The Tax Foundation since 1971 under a trademark transferred to it by the originator, Florida businessman Dallas Hostetler.
The calculation takes all federal, state, & local taxes & divides them by the nation's income – federal, state, & local individual income taxes (46 days), payroll taxes (26 days), sales & excise taxes (15 days), corporate income taxes (9 days), property taxes (11 days), & the remaining 7 days are spent paying estate & inheritance taxes, custom duties, & other taxes for a total of 114 days. By comparison - in 1910 Tax Freedom Day was January 19 equating to a percentage tax burden of 5%.
The Tax Foundation reports: Since 2002, federal expenses have surpassed federal revenues, with the budget deficit exceeding $1 trillion annually from 2009 to 2012. In calendar year 2016, the deficit will grow significantly, from $592 billion to $698 billion. If we include this annual federal borrowing, which represents future taxes owed, Tax Freedom Day would occur on May 10, 16 days later. The latest ever deficit-inclusive Tax Freedom Day occurred during World War II on May 25, 1945.
In 2016 American taxpayers will pay more in taxes than the entire American citizenry will spend on food, clothing, & housing combined – see graph below.
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Check the following graphic to see where your state ranks.
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Discerning readers realize that Tax Freedom Day does not represent the tax burden of an average American but rather is an expression of the economy's overall average tax burden. Since half of the citizens in the country pay no income tax & many of them receive a rebate for payroll taxes paid through the Earned Income Tax Credit, Tax Freedom Day overstates the typical tax burden of most Americans. But the Tax Foundation explains that "Tax Freedom Day is a significant date for taxpayers and lawmakers because it represents how long Americans as a whole have to work in order to pay the nation's tax burden."
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The above explanation of what Tax Freedom Day means & represents reveals why the trend shown on the above graph since 1940 has been persistently up so that now more than half the population believes that the government should redistribute wealth by heavy taxes on the rich. These Gallup results are in line with similar surveys from Pew Research which found that 54% of Americans think the government should "raise taxes on the wealthy & corporations to expand programs for the poor," & that 58% say "upper-income Americans pay too little in taxes." Biggest support for these views are 75% of Democrats, 50% of Independents, 56% of moderates, 76% of liberals, 61% of those making under $30,000 per year, 55% of those making between $30,000 & $74,999 per year, 52% of those 35 to 54, & most disappointingly 59% of those 18 to 34 years old.
These stats quite simply show why socialist Bernie Sanders has repeatedly beaten all Republican opponents in head to head matchups for months – if only Bernie can get past Hillary Clinton in the Democrat primary where the super delegates are stacked against him we will speed toward The Road To Serfdom.
Note below some results that confirm this government favoring trend from Gallup for what Sean Hannity calls a center right country (don't believe that for a second) – only 18% agree to eliminate the Departments of Education, Energy, Commerce, & HUD while only 34% would like to abolish the IRS – not surprising since half the population pays no federal income tax & @ least another 20% pays so little federal income tax that it is not important to them. This 70% doesn't realize that unleashing the 30% who are shackled by the federal income tax would provide the stimulus to improve the entire economy & everyone's lives.
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We can only expect government spending, & therefore taxes, to increase as ObamaCare becomes more entrenched every day. For instance in January 2014 the Pew Research Center found that 47% of respondents thought it was the responsibility of the federal government to make sure all Americans had healthcare insurance & 50% did not. In March 2016, 51% were in favor of government being responsible for healthcare insurance & 46% were not.
Accordingly, the missing point from supply-side economic principles in all these candidates' plans is that the reduction of the size of government & its claims on earned income is what fuels economic growth when coupled with lower marginal tax rates for the highest income earners and sound-money policies.
Ellen Sandles, writing in the WSJ, sums this up nicely – "The real crux of our tax exasperation is a spending problem from a government that has grown too big & promised too much to too many for far too long."
Enjoyed the quote: If Bernie Sanders beats Hillary, we're on the road to serfdom. I think if Hillary gets it we're on the road to perdition.
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