The Kochs’ Americans for Prosperity has a funny definition of fairness. As in they find it patently unfair that billionaires should be burdened a higher income tax rate than working families.
In their tax reform document, AFP bemoans that one reason people support a progressive income tax in part “based on a theory of fairness–which can include the desire to make the wealthy pay more due to the nebulous concept of their ‘ability to pay’ more.” In AFP’s fantasy land, apparently the only impediment to a minimum wage worker buying groceries for the week is the “nebulous concept of her ability to pay” for them.
AFP goes on to lament that a progressive tax code “removes individuals in lower brackets from the reality of the cost” of anti-poverty programs. Naturally, they conclude that a flat tax system, which would drastically cut taxes for the wealthy and shift more of the tax burden onto working families, is the only way to escape “the moral problems and economic inefficiencies” of the current system.
In short, the Kochs and AFP’s definition of economic inequality is that billionaires pay higher taxes than people living paycheck-to-paycheck.
View supporting research after the jump.
