Do the rich pay their fair share of taxes?

I normally don’t respond to the ravings of lunatics published in the Albuquerque Journal, but union bosses Richard Trumka and Jon Hendry put out something so ridiculous that a response is needed. The headline and much of the article is based on the claim that the top “2 percent” of Americans “doesn’t pay their fair share of taxes.”

Obviously, “fair” is in the eyes of the beholder (and the “dynamic duo” fails to define “fair”), but high income earners are indeed paying higher taxes than their lower-income counterparts. What exactly is “fair?” We are never told.

And, while wacky opinions appear on the local news pages is nothing new, Hendry’s anti-wealth, anti-capitalism, and anti-free market rhetoric makes me wonder why Republicans continue to allow up to $50 million of New Mexicans’ tax dollars annually to flow to Hendry and his union via the film production subsidy. Hendry and his union IATSE 480 are among the leading beneficiaries of the subsidy program.