The chairman of the economics department at Harvard University, Professor Greg Mankiw analyizes one portion of the new CBO report on the distribution of income and taxes and finds a telling statistic. Because transfer payments are, in effect, the opposite of taxes, it makes sense to look not just at taxes paid, but at taxes paid minus transfers received. For 2009, the most recent year available, here are taxes less transfers as a percentage of market income (income that households earned from their work and savings): Bottom quintile: -301 percent Second quintile: -42 percent Middle quintile: -5 percent Fourth quintile: … Continue reading How To Run Record Deficits? Have 60% Of Taxpayers Receive More Than They Pay