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A Project of The Annenberg Public Policy Center

Top 1%: What They Make and Pay

Q: What percent of taxes does the top 1 percent pay and what percent of the income do they make?
A: The top 1 percent of all households got 18 percent of all personal income and paid nearly 28 percent of all federal taxes in 2005, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The top 1 percent now pay a significantly larger share of taxes than before President Bush’s tax cuts,

Impact of Capital Gains Tax on the Middle Class

Q: Would raising the capital gains tax rate hit the middle class?
A: More than 80 percent of all capital gains income went to those making more than $200,000 a year in 2006. Very few making under $50,000 would be affected by any increase in the top capital gains rate.

N.C.’s African American Population

Q: What percentage of North Carolina’s population is African American?
A: In 2006, African Americans made up 21 percent of North Carolina’s total population. As of April 28, they also represent 21 percent of the state’s registered voters and 38 percent of registered Democrats.

Not Enough Delegates?

Q: What happens if neither Clinton nor Obama wins enough delegates to secure the nomination?
A: A brokered convention would result in the very unlikely event that neither sews up the nomination beforehand. We have no idea what would happen then.

Counting Obama’s and Clinton’s Delegates

Q: Which is the correct delegate count for Obama and Clinton?

A: There’s no official count. Different news organizations and Web sites come up with slightly different estimates because the job is complex and involves a bit of guesswork.

Obama and the National Anthem

Q: Did Obama say the National Anthem conveys a “war-like message” and should be swapped for something such as “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing”?

A: No. That’s false. The quote was one conservative writer’s idea of a joke, which has been picked up and repeated as though it were true in a chain e-mail.

Americans Making More than $250,000

Q: What percentage of the U.S. population makes more than $250,000 per year?

A: Roughly one in 50 households will take in more than $250,000 next year.

Blacks and the Democratic Party

Q: When did blacks start voting Democratic?
A: There was a big move to Democratic voting in Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration, and another in Lyndon B. Johnson’s.

V.P. Term Limits

Q: Are there term limits for the vice president like there are for the president? Can they only serve two terms, too?
A: No. In theory, someone could hold the office indefinitely, but no one has actually served more than two full terms.

Why Can Cubans Stay in the U.S.?

Q: Why is it that when a Cuban lands on U.S. soil, he is permitted to stay, yet when a Mexican/Hispanic lands on U.S. soil, he cannot?
A: Cuban immigrants were given special status by an act of Congress in the 1960s.