Now That Is A Whopper

Mike Gibbons, a leading Ohio Republican Senate candidate, said at a media event last fall that middle-class Americans don’t pay “any kind of a fair share” of income taxes. He said…the top 20% of earners in the United States pay 82% of federal income tax…and, if you do the math…45% to 50% don’t pay any income tax. Of course…a quick check at the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office shows this is quite a stretch from reality. The comments by Gibbons, a millionaire investment banker from Cleveland, were made in a September episode of “The Landscape” podcast by Crain’s Cleveland Business. But they could take on new resonance after Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, a potential 2024 presidential candidate, introduced a governing plan in February that has divided the party…over its call to raise taxes on millions of Americans who don’t earn enough to pay federal income taxes. Meanwhile…GOP leader, Mitch McConnell has already said…the party will keep it’s distance from such claims…as the 2022 elections approach.