Hannity paints a majority of tea partiers as free riders
Written by Christine Schwen
Published
Sean Hannity is a big fan of the tea parties. Such a fan, in fact, that he planned to use his television show to fundraise for them (until that idea was axed by “furious” Fox execs). That's why it was so surprising to hear him dismiss 52 percent of them as free loaders.
On the April 15 edition of his show, Hannity said this:
Here's what I don't understand, 50 percent of people aren't paying taxes, households, 50 percent of households are. Where does this end? 50 percent of people say that tax rates are about fair, 50 percent say it's not fair. So the people that are paying say it's not fair, the people that are not paying say it's fair.
So, because 50 (actually 47) percent of people don't pay income taxes, (once more time, Sean, most of those who don't pay income taxes do pay other federal taxes), and 50 percent of people think their taxes are fair, Hannity decided they're the same people.
The problem is, according to a recent CBS/New York Times poll, 52 percent of tea party supporters think their taxes are fair. So, according to Hannity, a majority of tea party supporters are free-loading recipients of a Socialist tax system? Ouch.