Who Are the Top One Percent?

Yesterday we looked at the IRS’s most revealing spreadsheet (xls), the one that says that the top one percent of income tax filers pay 40 percent of the federal income tax.

It’s mighty nice of those folks to pony up all that cash, particularly when you consider that they only earn 21.20 percent of the income reported to the IRS. But who are these generous chaps and chapettes?

In short, how much money do you have to make in order to make it into the Top One Percent? What do you think? A million dollars a year? A hundred million? A billion?

Actually not so much. In 2005, the latest year available from the IRS tax return stats, you needed an income of $365,000 to make it into the One Percent Club. That’s up from 2004, but about the same as 2000.

It’s interesting to see how the club entry fee has trended over the years. Back in 1986, you could get into the club with an income slightly under $100,000. Not any more. Not after the Clinton years. That’s when the entry fee for the Top One Percent Club went from $100,000 to $350,000.

What is it about those Democrats? They talk a good line about helping the little guy, but when push comes to shove they’d rather line the pockets of their rich friends.

When George W. Bush became president, he taught those high-rollers a lesson. After he’d finished with them, he’d lowered the entry bar to $250,000. That’s the soft bigotry of low expectations for you.

Of course, Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-IL) wife, Michelle, belongs in the Top One Percent all on her own, with her reported $400,000 job at the University of Chicago.

In other words, the Obamas are part of the problem. They are not paying their fair share. Right, Senator?

All right. Just kidding.