We've all heard this one during the presidential campaign. When it comes to income taxes, the Democratic presidential candidates keep telling us, the rich don't pay enough.

That's a widespread belief, but do the politicians even know how much of the income tax burden the rich pay now?

According to presidential candidate Al Sharpton, "The top one percent in this country pays very much less than ten percent, very much less than five percent."

Sharpton said he thinks the wealthy should pay "somewhere around 15 percent."
But that's so silly because — and I bet most of you don't know this — the IRS says the richest 1 percent of taxpayers already pay 34 percent of all income taxes. Twice what Sharpton wanted them to pay.

Still you may feel the rich should pay even more. It's a tempting thought, since they have so much.

But let's remember the facts: the top 1 percent of Americans — those who earn more than about $300,000 a year — pay 34 percent, more than a third of all income taxes, and the top 5 percent, those making over $125,000, pay more than half.

On camera, Stossel not only set Sharpton up for a fall (which the Reverend fell for) but even pointed out to him that the 'rich” paid 34% of all taxes. Sharpton quickly changed the subject.

Stossel is a national treasure. But, for the life of me, I don't know how he ever found a place on TV. I guess ABC thought that no one would be watching on Friday evening at 9 p.m. Unfortunately, they're probably right.