For conservatives in general and maybe some tea party paranoids, it was a “gotcha” moment: news that 47 percent of American households paid no federal income tax. At last! Confirmation that the poor and lower middle-class were ripping off the rest of us taxpaying patriots.

Let's be clear: Exposing tax cheats and those who don't pay their fair share to support an equitable and democratic society is a good thing. But hold the champagne. The now-infamous 47 percent figure is grossly misused and misunderstood, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center which first published the number.

What’s more important, focus on the 47 percent figure allows the self-appointed tax-cheat police to overlook the real villains in the great American “beat-the-tax man” game. It’s our American corporations.

From 1998 to 2005, two out of every three of the 1.3 million U.S. corporations paid no federal income tax, according to the General Accountability Office.

In some cases, the corporations involved, especially smaller ones, reported they were unprofitable. Seems hard to swallow considering how good times were from 1998 to 2005, but you never know.

Larger corporations, like Exxon Mobil, were able to duck taxes legally by using subsidiaries in the Cayman Island, Bermuda and the Bahamas to shelter cash from overseas operations.

A recent Forbes Magazine article reported that Exxon Mobil, with a record $45 billion profit last year, paid $15 million in income taxes — but all overseas, nothing to Uncle Sam. Likewise, General Electric pulled in $10.3 billion in pre-tax income but owed nothing in U.S. income taxes, Forbes reported.

What stands out here is how skewed is our notion of welfare. In the Clinton years, you’ll recall, we largely did away with federal welfare for individuals and families. But it’s alive and well today for corporate America, which naturally does not call it welfare.

The CATO Institute, home of organized libertarianism (an oxymoron?), contends there are more than 100 corporate subsidy programs — welfare by another name — on the books, including vast sums for the agribusiness giants, the sugar industry and other business biggies, especially global firms. These take the form of research grants, subsidized insurance and loans, even payments to foreigners who buy from U.S. corporations. (Some might call that bribery).

The justification for this kind of outlay — CATO calculated the cost at $75 billion a year, Time magazine had it even higher — is that it creates more U.S. jobs. Maybe; these claims are hard to track. The record of corporations receiving government subsidies is not a good one. During the 1990s, Time found the five top corporate recipients of subsidies from the U.S. Export-Import Bank actually cut their work forces by a third. Why? To take advantage of globalization and cheaper labor abroad.

Hard to fault the corporations. Their manipulation of the tax code and grasping pursuit of federal subsidies may not be very patriotic, but it’s legal. Lay the blame where it belongs: on a Congress that allows K Street corporate lobbyists to write the tax code in return for campaign contributions. And on a public that sees red over low-income families who pay no income tax, but seems indifferent to welfare for wealthy corporations.

Now, about that 47 percent who pay no income tax. Who are they? Overwhelmingly, they’re individuals and families with little income or retirees and widows living on Social Security. (Try living in New Jersey on even $50,000 a year with a family of four.) They may pay no federal income tax, but they are liable for Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes and, of course, and for state and local taxes.

Botton line: the real percentage that pays no taxes at all — income or payroll — isn’t 47 percent but just 13.4 percent, according to the Tax Policy Center. But 47 percent makes for a better story, doesn’t it? And for more outrage.