That’s my point — the left includes all those local taxes and Payroll Taxes when they talk about the “effective tax rate” the secretaries of the world pay. Not as deductions that made her Federal Income Tax rate lower, but as part of the total taxes they paid.
They disingenously only show the Federal Income Tax return for high earners, but if pressed for an explanation to questions like yours, they will admit they included all the other taxes she paid to inflate her number even though it has nothing to do with the Federal Income Tax rate the Buffet Rule would affect.
I doubt they put any such thought behind it. It’s more likely that her return was prepared by Timothy Franz Geithner, or another Obama Administration incompetent. Actually they’re using the same old leftist stragegy — Lie Big, Lie First, and Repeat the Lie, Repeat the Lie, Repeat the Lie, and eventually people will believe it.
Meanwhile, Obama jumped through every possible loophole he could without risking an audit. The effective rate mentioned on the Obamas return, which is public information, is clearly taken directly from the return (I checked) — total tax divided by adjusted gross income, so I’m taking the lie at its bald-faced value.