The Tea Party folks.

And you would think they would know a bit about that.

D.
—————-
Exposed by none other than Bruce Bartlett, adviser to President Reagan and Treasury official under President George H.W. Bush.

“For an antitax group, they don’t know much about taxes.

Tea Partyers were asked how much the federal government gets in taxes as a percentage of the gross domestic product.

Tuesday’s Tea Party crowd… thought that federal taxes were almost three times as high as they actually are. The average response was 42% of GDP and the median 40%.

…acceptable answers would be 6.4%, which is the percentage for federal income taxes; 12.7%, which would be for both income taxes and Social Security payroll taxes; or 14.8%, which would represent all federal taxes as a share of GDP in 2009.”

The Misinformed Tea Party Movement, Forbes article. (March 19, 2010)

Exactly!

The only time that Mr. AOW and I get a refund is during the years that our medical expenses are below the itemization level. And even then, as one who is self-employed, I always apply that refund to next year’s estimated taxes.

Funny. When France instituted the “forced loan” in the years just after the Revolution, in combination with a number of other fiscally insane measures it brought about the collapse of the Revolutionary government and the rise of Napoleon. I wonder what will happen here?