1729 Fudged News

Read an interesting article the other day online. It was originally posted on Forbes.com. Which in turn was based on a posting from the Drudge Report. So a conservative-leaning website was blasting an even more conservative blog, which I in turn am turning into a radio and blog commentary.
Ain't the newfangled blogo-media-sphere great?
The article was about what the Drudge Report tried to convey in a supposedly accurate factoid on taxes. The commentator from Forbes called him out. Drudge's headline said, "Data: Only 85 Million pay Fed Taxes" The kind of suitably histrionic headline for which Drudge is known. The term "drudging up the muck" has taken on new meaning since Matt entered the fray.
Josh Barro, the commentator in Forbes, took issue with Drudge's drudgery. In a nutshell, it's because Drudge was wrong. While the IRS reported 85 million paid income taxes in 2010, that doesn't tell the whole story. First, income taxes aren't the only federal taxes people pay. Virtually everyone who works pays payroll taxes, for Social Security, Medicare, etc. And anyone who drives a car pays gasoline taxes in abundance.
Both taxes, by the way, are the same for folks whether they’re rich or poor. Though it's easy to see how poor people pay a disproportionately higher share of their income for a tank of gas. And actually, rich people get a break on payroll taxes because after a certain high level of income it cuts off.
The other thing Barro pointed out was that the IRS said 85 million tax units. Many of those are married couples filing a single return. There are 122 million actual people paying income taxes.
Looks like Drudge fudged.
America ya gotta love it.