You've heard this one over and over again in all of its many manifestations:

"The top one percent pay 67 percent" or "the top 10 percent pay 92 percent of all the income tax collected" or some such nonesense.

This proves again Benjamin Disraeli's contention that "there are lies, damn lies, and statistics."

The idea is that because so much government revenue comes from the rich, they are over-taxed and can't be expected to sacrifice any further.

Nevermind that because of many other taxes (besides income taxes) like sales tax and payroll tax, the poor pay more of a share of their income in taxes than the rich do. This is why Warren Buffett, one of the richest men in the world, repeatedly points out that his tax rate is lower than his secretary's, who makes 60 thousand a year.

Nevermind that the rich earn most of their income not from work -- from which the government levies a 28 percent rate on the top -- but from wealth or interest on investments, for which the wealthy are only charged a 15 percent rate at most.

No, despite those important objections, an even more glaring error can be seen in the RWTP (right wing talking point) that most of the income tax is collected from the wealthy.

It absolutely doesn't matter.

The percentage of income generated by taxes on the wealthy is a total non-sequitor. It's a major premise and a minor premise leading to nothing.

Consider these two scenarios:

Let's say you live in a very small country with a population of only eleven income earners. You make 1 million a year and everybody else makes 10k a year.

Scenario A--

You and everybody else are taxed at 20 percent.

You pay 200,000 in taxes and everybody else pays 2000 (2000 x 10 = 20,000).

The gov't's total take is 220K. You paid 200/220ths of that or 91 percent.

Scenario B--

You are taxed at 19 percent.

Everyone else pays no income taxes at all.

Now instead of paying 200K in taxes, you pay only 190K.

You save 10K over Scenario A, but you now get to whine and moan that "your taxes are too high because you paid ALL (100 percent) of income taxes collected."

*****

Bottom line--the percentage that the rich pay in income tax collected is irrelevant as to whether the tax is "too high" or "too low."

As long as we have a tax on income, people earning a lot are going to pay a lot.

Because it's a tax on INCOME.

Duh.

The only way that the rich could lower their total percentage collected would be if everybody else became wealthier relative to the very few at the top.