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Rush Limbaugh

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RUSH: Do you remember way, way back (this had to be in the early nineties, late eighties, maybe, on April Fool’s Day, on April 1st), I did an entire monologue on the necessity of increasing taxes on the poor. The poor were not paying their fair share. It was unfair. I went through this whole mess. It was one of the early things that marked me as one of America’s truly great thinkers and bold thinkers, because not only did I think it, I had the courage to actually suggest it. Well, it has taken a while. Here is an example of what I always say about this program being on the cutting edge of societal evolution. CBS and the Associated Press are reporting that New Jersey is among 19 states that now tax families living in poverty, according to a new report released today.

‘The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found two-parent families of four who earn less than the federal poverty line … $20,615 per year … must pay income taxes in 19 of the 42 states that levy that tax. ‘Families with very limited means are still taxed too much by states,’ said Jason Levitis, the report’s author. New Jersey doesn’t require residents who earn less than $20,000 per year to pay income taxes, but the center found poor families in New Jersey who make between $20,000 and $20,615 owed $219.’ So if you earn less than 20 grand in New Jersey, you get off without paying any income tax. However, between $20,000 and $20,615, which is the poverty level, then you will owe $219 in federal income tax. ”By eliminating state income taxes on working families with incomes at or below the poverty line, states can offset some of the child care and transportation costs that families incur as they strive to become economically self-sufficient,” this according to Jason Levitis, the report’s author.

‘In other words, by eliminating income taxes on poor working families, states can help make work pay.’ Well, that may well be, and I don’t have a list of the other states here. (This story is CBS and AP, and the only thing that counts to them is the East Coast.) But any state, folks, as in North Carolina, Florida, California, they all have these things: legalized gambling, lotteries. All of that taxes the poor. Who are these people kidding? All those things are direct taxes on the poor. But there is a premise out there — and of course, this is right out of the left — that just because you’re poor, you are exempted from contributing your ‘fair share.’ Of course, if you’re wealthy you are obligated to pay more than your fair share. That’s what the whole percentage racket is all about. So here’s New Jersey with the guts to go out there and tax its own poor people, as I suggested on April 1st way, way back in the early nineties.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Here are the other 18 states in which people below poverty level face more than $200 in state income taxes. In addition to New Jersey, we have: Alabama, Arkansas, Hawaii, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Montana, New Jersey, Oregon and West Virginia. Four of them, Alabama, Arkansas, Hawaii and West Virginia, owe more than $400 in state income tax. These are people below the poverty line.

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