Rep. Gohmert Claims "Over Half" Of Taxpayers Are Tea Partiers

Several weeks ago, conservatives reacted with frustration to a Tax Policy Center report that found that 47% of Americans were expected to have no federal income tax liability.  Republican lawmakers quickly co-opted the story into one of their misguided talking points about the terrible plight of the rich.  Some even extrapolated from the data to claim that 47% of Americans weren't paying any taxes whatsoever.  Their general line, however, was that an increasing number of Americans were now piggybacking off of the productive majority.

The 47% figure can be explained in several ways, none of which help the conservative argument.  As income inequality becomes more pronounced, those that are left behind will owe less in federal income taxes.  (The 47% do, however, pay many other taxes, most of which tend to be regressive.)  The reason for the 47% figure is pretty straightforward, as well: more and more Americans either don't earn enough income or qualify for enough deductions and credits.

Speaking on the House floor last night, Rep. Gohmert (R-TX) illustrated why there is a general perception that Republicans are the party of anti-intellectualism.  Gohmert, a former judge in Texas, took the 47% figure and a recent survey on how many Americans sympathize with the Tea Party movement to argue that, as a percentage, Tea Party members constitute more than half of all the people who pay federal income tax.

Gohmert: 53% percent of Americans to pay all of the income tax. And then, I've heard great disparagement as my friend from Iowa has as we been to the tea parties and been asked to speak at various tea parties including the one down Pennsylvania Avenue a few weeks ago, the one at the Washington Monument. And you see all these wonderful peaceful law-abiding people and you talk to 'em, you find out, these are people payin' income tax.  And we also have seen the latest survey that indicated that 28 percent of Americans -- up from 20 percent -- 28 percent of Americans identify with the tea party.  Well, what that means is, since those 28 percent pay income tax, it means that over half of the 53 percent projected to pay all the income tax this year -- those that are really carrying the load for the country, pulling the wagon for everybody else -- over half of them are tea party members, identify with the tea party.

Gohmert actually thinks he's onto something.  But his conclusion is complete rubbish.  First, while it is true that 27% of Americans sympathize with the Tea Party, only 2% actually say they are "active" in the movement.  In fact, as the Washington Post reports, "The percentage of people who say the Democratic Party represents their personal values and is in tune with the problems of people like themselves hasn't changed since November.  The percentage siding with the GOP, however, has dropped by almost precisely the numbers now siding with the tea party."

Second, Gohmert's assumption that every single person that sympathizes with the Tea Party pays income tax is doubly ridiculous.  While it is certainly possible that the vasy majority of the people who belong to or sympathize with the Tea Party are hard-working Americans who want to pay taxes, that doesn't necessarily mean that they actually do pay fedeal income taxes.  Again, some of them might make too little or qualify for enough deductions and credits.  Furthermore, the throngs of elderly and retired Americans who belong to or sympathize with the Tea Party are not themselves paying federal income taxes. 

In other words, there is absolutely nothing to back up Gohmert's claim that Tea Party members constitute half of all taxpayers.