patrick.net

wthrfrk80 says

- Rick Santorum: "Over 40% of children in America are born out of wedlock"

I like this one :) coming from the anti-contraceptive poster-boy.

Of the 40% of children born out of wed lock, how many have Right-wing parents?

Born out of wedlock because mom is SMART!

Being married messes up all your welfare bennefits, S-8, food stamps, free medical.

My married friends with stay at home moms are broke as a joke with maxed out credit cards - they should never ever have gotten married but put the pregnant partner on taxpayer dime and live like kings.

wthrfrk80 says

-- John Cornyn: "51%, that is, a majority of American households, paid no income tax in 2009. Zero. Zip. Nada."

This is narrowly true, but most people think "the taxes I pay to the IRS each year on my 1040" when they hear "income tax", and by that standard its not true because those include medicare and social security tax.

HEY YOU says

Of the 40% of children born out of wed lock, how many have Right-wing parents?

Heck if I know.

evilmonkeyboy says

I like this one :) coming from the anti-contraceptive poster-boy.

Was he "anti-contraceptive" or just "anti Catholics-being forced-to-pay-for-it"?

Still, that's a stunning statistic. 40%? I didn't know it was THAT high. I guess "sex-education" means "teaching people how to have sex" ;-)

bdrasin says

This is narrowly true, but most people think "the taxes I pay to the IRS each year on my 1040" when they hear "income tax", and by that standard its not true because those include medicare and social security tax.

It looks like you are correct yes. Politifact has a link to more details for each "claim." Here's the link for Cornyn's claim:

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2011/jul/08/john-cornyn/john-cornyn-says-51-percent-american-households-pa/

And an excerpt that backs up your assertion about income vs. payroll taxes:

"Estimates by the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center project that for tax year 2011, 46.4 percent of households won’t have any income tax liability. However, of this number, 28.3 percent will pay payroll taxes, the center projects. Of the remaining 18.1 percent with neither income nor payroll tax liability, 10.3 percent are elderly and 6.9 percent are not elderly but have incomes lower than $20,000. In other words, all but a tiny sliver of Americans without either income tax or payroll tax liability are either elderly or poor."

wthrfrk80 says

bdrasin says

This is narrowly true, but most people think "the taxes I pay to the IRS each year on my 1040" when they hear "income tax", and by that standard its not true because those include medicare and social security tax.

It looks like you are correct yes. Politifact has a link to more details for each "claim." Here's the link for Cornyn's claim:

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2011/jul/08/john-cornyn/john-cornyn-says-51-percent-american-households-pa/

This whole thing seems to me to be verbal sleight-of-hand. Payroll tax is an income tax in the general sense of being "a tax levied on and based on income", even if its not FICA. So its a true statement that doesn't mean what most people will assume it means.

bdrasin says

So its a true statement that doesn't mean what most people will assume it means.

Maybe it should have gone under Politifact's "mostly true" category rather than "true" category.