Slate, 99 Percenters, Meet the 53 Percenters:

In response to Occupy Wall Street, some conservatives are blasting the 47 percent of Americans who don’t pay federal taxes. Do they have a point?

The slogan doesn’t exactly sing: “We are the 53 percent!” But this new campaign, a conservative answer to Occupy Wall Street, has some verve. The 53 Percenters are responding to We Are the 99 Percent, an inequality-focused online Tumblr designed to shame—or at least point out that—the top 1 percent of earners are taking bigger and bigger pieces of the pie.

The 53 percent say everyone should stop moaning, quit pointing fingers at Wall Street, and pay their damn taxes. (The name refers to the fact that only 53 percent of households pay federal income tax these days.) The brainchild of Erick Erickson of RedState.org, the 53 Tumblr features comments like: “I don’t blame Wall Street. Suck it up you whiners. I am the 53 percent subsidizing you so you can hang out on Wall Street and complain.” (That’s from Erickson’s inaugural post, by the way.) …

[W]hat of the claim that the 53 percent are subsidizing the 99 percent? Well, just because 47 percent of households do not pay federal income tax does not mean that they do not pay any federal taxes. Indeed, almost everyone pays some: There are federal taxes for Social Security and Medicare, on gas, alcohol, and cigarettes. Plus, there are also state and local taxes, and property taxes. You’d have to be freegan to escape paying any tax at all.

(Hat Tip: Ann Murphy.)