Sen. Sanders Calls For 'A Couple Hundred Thousand' To Come To Washington

Is an American Senator calling for mass protests in Washington DC?  It certainly sounded like that yesterday.  During an appearance on the MSNBC 6pm ratings nadir hosted by Cenk Uygur, Senator Sanders made this statement;

I don't believe the Senator is calling for increased tourism. It would seem that he is hoping for some sort of mass protest.

And then there is the old shared sacrifice, 'taxing the rich' chant.  According to Senator Sanders, despite paying more than 40% of all the income tax collected, the 'rich' are not paying enough. Based on another statement by Sanders, he also believes that the taxes paid by those fortunate enough to be considered wealthy are not helping at all;

'They have not contributed one nickel to deficit reduction.'

Really?  Not one nickel?

He is technically correct as the deficit cannot be reduced if spending continues to outpace tax collections. Therefore, it would also be fair to say that the other 99% of tax paying Americans have not contributed a nickel to deficit reduction either.

In terms of a 'shared sacrifice,' the fortunate high-earners have given the government considerable amounts of cash. Here's a handy fact for the Senator, the top 1% of all wage earners are paying more income tax than the bottom 95% combined.

And just looking at Federal income taxes collected, you can see a massive imbalance with 70% of all taxes paid by 10% of the people working population.