<![CDATA["but the important thing is, knowing that doesn’t make you as mad."]]>Today is the final day for filing tax returns* and apparently, some folks on the right have been getting upset that people such as me and my girlfriend (working four jobs we made a total gross income of just under $30,000 last year) pay little or no income tax in addition to payroll taxes (medicare, social security, state and local taxes, etc.). Nick Baumann @ Mother Jones explains.

I was mostly grateful that our tax returns enabled us to buy Hanna a pair of new work shoes without worrying about overdrafting the checking account, and maybe put a little money away in the savings account. But it turns out there are some people who are hopping mad that we have the unmitigated gall to be living below the poverty line.

Thankfully, we can count on Jon Stewart to highlight this craziness and make light of it. While simultaneously underscoring, of course, just how incredibly myopic, privileged, and, well, simply mean it is to scapegoat economically marginal folks for paying less tax.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
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Not to mention: WTF? Aren’t these people the ones who think there is too much tax already?II? Shouldn’t they be jumping with joy that over 40% of American households are in such dire straights economically that they’re in effect starving the government of funds? Pretty soon we’ll have smaller government by default. You can’t have your no-tax cake and eat it too, people!

*(in case you finished them back in February, like me, and had forgotten there was a deadline still to come)

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