Wealthiest 1% Saw 275% Income Increase Over Last Three Decades

Meanwhile, poorest 20% saw just an 18% increase in growth

The 99% have a good idea about how filthy rich the 1% are, but this week the Congressional Budget Office gives us a clear vision of exactly how wealthy the upper-upper-crust is. According to a CBO analysis, the top 1% saw their after-tax income grow by 275% over the last three decades. To put that in perspective, the poorest 20% saw income growth of 18%.

That's what we're dealing with: 275% vs 18%

It's with that in mind that President Obama and Democrats in Congress are trying to pass measures that would tax some of that disproportionate wealth, but Republicans are fighting these measures.

The way Republican-Tea Partisan Rep. Paul Ryan is trying to spin it is:

“Rather than raising taxes and making it more difficult for Americans to become wealthy, let’s lower the amount of government spending that the wealthy now receive.”

According to the CBO, the biggest reasons for the income disparity is that wealth was unevenly distributed to the 1% from extraordinary amounts of market income and also that federal tax rates have fallen while government transfer payments to the lowest-income households declined as well.