A Christian Liberal is NOT an oxymoron.

Posted by XT on October 30th, 2008 in US News

The “Wall Street Bailout” is officially a “rich guy giveaway”:

Under fire from Democrats and Republicans alike, the White House on Thursday defended giving billions of taxpayer dollars to banks that plan to use some of the money to reward shareholders and executives – or even buy other banks.

How does any of this help the little guy? Let the Bushies explain:

“That’s almost like a gun at their heads, so that they know that they have to start making money to be able to do that,” White House press secretary Dana Perino said. She noted that “not only rich people get dividend payments,” which can form a significant portion of income for retirees and mutual funds.

“I want to make sure people understand that a lot of people could suffer if they don’t have dividend payments,” Perino said.

Hmmm. I wonder which people…

It looks like we are talking about retired people (48% of dividend income goes to retired persons). And about a third of them have reportable dividend income. And it accouts for somewhere between 5.6% and 9.3% of their income. But that is a bit misleading:

Of particular note is that, of all dividend income received in tax year 2000 ($147 billion), 48 percent ($70.3 billion) was received by tax filers aged 50 and older with incomes in excess of $100,000

Just before that, it states:

Among taxpayers aged 50 and older, dividend income is heavily concentrated among those with incomes above $100,000, and even more so among those aged 50-64 than among those aged 65 and older (Table 6). More than half (56 percent) of all dividend income of retirees
went to filers with incomes above $100,000. More than one-third (37.3 percent) went to filers with incomes in excess of $200,000. Dividend income was more concentrated among near-retirees, with nearly three quarters (72 percent) going to those with incomes greater than $100,000, and more than half (53.9 percent) going to those with incomes in excess of $200,000.

Yeah, I’m sure those retired persons earning more than $200,000 a year will really be hurting without government money going directly into their pockets, through their bank stocks.

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