Almost Half of All Americans Pay No Income Tax

Washington DC, Feb 22, 2012. According to a report recently released by The Heritage Foundation, almost half the American population pays absolutely no income taxes.

This is a dramatic increase from previous years when unemployment rates were much lower and the economy was in much better condition.

The Heritage Founndation Index of Dependence on Government shows how many of us rely on the federal government for housing, food, income, student aid or other assistance. Almost all of those 49.5% who pay no income tax receive generous federal benefits.

“One of the most worrying trends in the Index is the coinciding growth in the non-taxpaying public,” wrote Heritage authors Bill Beach and Patrick Tyrrell.

“The percentage of people who do not pay federal income taxes, and who are not claimed as dependents by someone who does pay them, jumped from 14.8 percent in 1984 to 49.5 percent in 2009.”

That means 151.7 million Americans paid nothing in 2009. By comparison, 34.8 million tax filers paid no taxes in 1984. This is precisely why President Barack Hussein Obama, D-Kenya, wants more voters drawing government benefits, and fewer paying all our income taxes. It means the Democrat Party will become impossible to defeat in future elections.

People who pay no taxes are much more likely to support tax increases on those who do pay taxes, and will always vote for politicians who promise a greater expansion of federal benefits. Very soon, this group will be an electoral majority, and at that point it will be impossible to reverse the Obama policy of  greater national debt and greater dependence on government.

The rapid growth of Americans who don’t pay income taxes is particularly alarming for the fate of the American form of government, Beach and Tyrrell warned. Coupled with higher spending on government programs, it is already proving to be a major fiscal challenge.

“This trend should concern everyone who supports America’s republican form of government,” Beach and Tyrrell wrote.

“If the citizens’ representatives are elected by an increasing percentage of voters who pay no income tax, how long will it be before these representatives respond more to demands for yet more entitlements and subsidies from non-payers than to the pleas of taxpayers to exercise greater spending prudence?”