How does keeping the taxes get them jobs again? We need to admit, as a country, that using the tax code to achieve social change is retarded. Taxes should = expenditures + a few percentage points for overages and unforeseen events.
Blame the states for using the money to close budget short falls like TX, instead of using the money on infrastructure projects.
Half of the 49% of people who don't pay federal income tax since ~20% of the population isn't employed for various reason. Don't you know how to follow a conversation?
Also, 100$/year x 153mill x .2 = ~3billion. Chump change compared to the federal budget or debt. In order to make a dent in either, you'd have to take half of the cumulated "wealth" of the working poor which = ~700billion. Or you can get the same number by taxing the rich an additional 3%.
Because of republican tax credit programs. That 45%-49% number includes unemployed, people who don't earn enough to pay taxes (poverty line or lower). That's appox half of that number. You should be bitching about the other half that works and avoids paying taxes because of programs YOUR PARTY ADVOCATED FOR such as: earned income credit, child deductions, mortgage deductions, student loan deductions, charity deductions, etc. People who are considered middle class benifit from these types of deductions than the poor. As Friedman said (I'm paraphrasing here) there exist no worse crime than taxing the poor for the benefit for the rest of us.