Thank you, Mother Jones.

I came across this image via Tumblr. It was posted without further explanation.

 

What a rip-off, right? How dare those rich people take advantage of the rest of us like that? That dirty, evil Bush stuck it to us again. Horrible, terrible idea. Of course, you know- if you're a Lib.

If you think for yourself, you pretty quickly realize how misleading this graphic is. When you look at the actual numbers, the "bottom 20%" don't pay any taxes at all. From the fourth 20% to the top 1.1%, you'll find that the percentage of tax cuts is favored toward the poorer of the lot and that the actual amount is very close to being the same. Once you get to the top 0.1%, you're actually looking at a much smaller percentage of their income as a cut of their actual income.

In other words, the richer you are, the less you benefited in a meaningful way from Bush's tax cuts. Of course, this graphic is much easier to understand... and to remember... than the truth. The fact that it helps advance the idea that the rich are evil, the republicans are evil and that socialism is the answer is purely coincidental.