That thing called politics

Which I try to avoid on my blog, but let's make an exception, shall we?

1) Thank you, House, for passing the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell

2) Uncharacteristically (and enough to make my husband chuckle at me), I actually am not bummed that this distribution won't be getting any more lopsided this year.

Summary of Federal Individual Income Tax Data, 2008
(Updated October 2010)

	Number of Returns with Positive AGI	AGI ($ millions)	Income Taxes Paid ($ millions)	Group's Share of Total AGI	Group's Share of Income Taxes	Income Split Point	Average Tax Rate
All Taxpayers	139,960,580	8,426,625	1,031,512	100%	100%	-	12.24%
Top 1%	1,399,606	1,685,472	392,149	20.00%	38.02%	$380,354	23.27%
1-5%	5,598,423	1,241,229	213,569	14.73%	20.70%		17.21%
Top 5%	6,998,029	2,926,701	605,718	34.73%	58.72%	$159,619	20.70%
5-10%	6,998,029	929,761	115,703	11.03%	11.22%		12.44%
Top 10%	13,996,058	3,856,462	721,421	45.77%	69.94%	$113,799	18.71%
10-25%	20,994,087	1,821,717	169,193	21.62%	16.40%		9.29%
Top 25%	34,990,145	5,678,179	890,614	67.38%	86.34%	$67,280	15.68%
25-50%	34,990,145	1,673,932	113,025	19.86%	10.96%		6.75%
Top 50%	69,980,290	7,352,111	1,003,639	87.25%	97.30%	>$33,048	13.65%
Bottom 50%	69,980,290	1,074,514	27,873	12.75%	2.70%	<$33,048	2.59%
Source: Internal Revenue Service

(Table data from: http://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/250.html)

And for the visually inclined, there is slightly older data (2004) presented as a graph. See pages 22 & 23 of:
http://www.taxfoundation.org/files/wp1.pdf