Ted Cruz says top 1 percent earn more of national income than any year since 1928 -



"Cruz accurately recapped calculations of income by respected researchers...Mark this statement Mostly True."

To check on changes over time for ourselves, we built a chart from the database (http://topincomes.parisschoolofeconomics.eu/#Database:).

The resulting data, covering 1913, the earliest checkable year, to 2012, shows 1928 and 2012 to be the top two years where the top 1 percent of the richest Americans (the richest of the rich) earned the greatest share of the nation’s income, which the government breaks down (http://www.census.gov/cps/data/incdef.html) into 15 categories including wages, salaries and self-employment income plus income from dividends and interest.

By email, Saez said he expects the top 1 percent’s income share for 2014 to prove slightly lower than in 2012 as a result of tax increases approved by Congress and Obama in 2013 (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/18/business/merely-rich-and-superrich-the-tax-gap-is-narrowing.html?_r=0) raising the nation’s marginal income-tax rate from 35 to 39.6 percent for married couples earning more than $450,000 annually, starting in 2013. That deal, which also whittled tax deductions for high-earning businesses and individuals, helped the government avoid the "fiscal cliff (http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887323820104578216092043022764), a term describing the looming impact of tax cuts initiated by President George W. Bush expiring at the end of 2012 at the same time congressionally mandated spending reductions were due to kick in.


http://www.politifact.com/texas/statements/2015/jan/30/ted-cruz/ted-cruz-says-top-1-percent-earn-more-national-inc/ (http://www.politifact.com/texas/statements/2015/jan/30/ted-cruz/ted-cruz-says-top-1-percent-earn-more-national-inc/)

Jealous of others success is a communist attributes...just so you know

not jealousy, just facts.  you evidently assign emotion to facts.  why is that?

If they didn't earn it, though, it wouldn't exist for anyone else to plunder.

you mean like the way the wealthy are plundering the earnings of the rest of the country?  is that what you mean?

Why do you care how much someone makes...I mean, I make much more than you...should I be forced to give you some, simply because you do not have the talent I do?

How are they plundering wealth from anyone, vit?

I don't think wvit realizes folks with money invest that money...and that investment creates jobs! But on a side note...foreigners have taken taken more US jobs during dictator obama's reign of terror than American born citizens.

so you don't think the wealthy are plundering the rest of us?  then why has their wealth been steadily rising while everyone else's wealth is going down?

it's because the progressive tax system has changed over time.  we could just as easily change it in the other direction, but then you'd consider that plundering while you don't think it's plundering now.

It's strange how you think of one way as plundering but you think the other way isn't.

You can't plunder (tax) what one doesn't earn.  So taxation (the tax system) has nothing to do with what one earns.

So, how are the earners plundering wealth from anyone, vit?  You didn't answer the question.

the investment income tax is one way.

Yes, I agree, the investment income tax plunders money from people, but that has nothing to do with my question.

top earners have changed the way they take their money over time as the tax code has changed.  they take most of their earnings in investments and not in salary, this means they get the money they just don't pay the taxes.

this increases the deficit which means that we all have a greater stake in the liability.

That's a great case for not plundering their salary earnings so much.

As far as the deficit goes, the shysters in Washington can't spend responsibly with the taxes they plunder now, so they damn sure won't get any better at it by plundering more.

Wvit,

The simple answer is...your dems tax policies have driven much of US manufacturing overseas...so naturally Americans that normally held those jobs....are now making less...while those with investment savvy...earn their wealth through the market you so champion! 

tax policy hasn't driven manufacturing overseas.  cheap labor has moved manufacturing overseas.

So the highest Corporate tax rates on the planet have no impact? (http://www.aesopsretreat.com/forum/richedit/smileys/YahooIM/24.gif) 

not really.  we can't continue to function as a society if we allow ourselves to get drawn into some kind of war on which country can lower their corporate tax rates the most.

this is just another example of how the wealthy are raiding the wealth of the rest of us.

It is obvious you know little of how large and small businesses work??

why's that faxy?

this is just another example of how the wealthy are raiding the wealth of the rest of us.

Failure to plunder the wealth of some is not raiding the wealth of others, and I have still yet to see one example from you of how the 1% plundered the wealth of others.

how about the uproar that the republican leadership has ginned up on the inheritance tax since you didn't like my last example.