LETTER: Don’t blame low taxes for US debt

In his recent letter to the editor, Frank de Vroede surmised that our debt problems are because taxes are too low and the rich and corporations get tax breaks (also referred to as not paying their fair share).

Looking back at taxes as a percentage of the gross domestic product from 1930 to now, one finds that the percentage average is 17.5 percent. High was in 2000 when federal taxes were 20 percent of GDP. Low was at 3 percent in 1931. We are now at 19 percent, which is higher than the average.

Regarding “fair share,” the National Taxpayers Union Foundation reveals that “the top 25 percent of earners paid nearly 89 percent of all income taxes in 2020. This is the highest share of income taxes paid seen in the tax data available going back to 1980.” Fair share?

To add more detail, the latest data show the top 10 percent of taxpayers (making more than $152,000) made 49 percent of the income in this country yet paid 73 percent of the taxes. The bottom 50 percent of the taxpayers (making less than $42,000) made 10 percent of the income and paid 2 percent of the taxes. Sounds fair to me.